U-17 World Cup organizers blame low attendance on Nigeria's senior teams

LAGOS, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- The Organizing Committee of the Nigeria 2009 FIFA U-17 World Cup on Monday blamed the tournament's low attendance on the poor performances of the country's senior teams.

Nigeria drew 2-2 with Tunisia in September in a key match of the 2010 World Cup qualifier, and the country's under-20 team failed to go beyond the round of 16 in the recent FIFA U-20 World Cup in Egypt.

Mainasara Ilo, the chief executive officer of the committee, told a news conference in Abuja that the bandwagon effect would have been transferred to the current tournament if the performances of the two teams were impressive.

Meanwhile, he admitted that the tournament did not receive the level of publicity needed to create the desired awareness.

"We have sold up to 60 percent and those were bought by state governments," he said.

Ilo said the organizing committee would be adopting a new ticket distribution policy to draw more people to come and watch, but denied the speculation about free access to the stadia.

"There was a breakdown in communication because the people were not properly informed that they could only enter the stadium with their match tickets," he said.

"FIFA does not compromise on standards, so let the people be rightly informed when tickets bought by state governments are distributed to them."