THOUSANDS of football fans turned rowdy after waiting since 3am at the Shah Alam Stadium, where only a few counters were opened to sell tickets to the Sea Games final between Malaysia and Thailand tomorrow.

Frustrated fans kicked down barricades as they queued in front of the counters, of which only 10 were opened despite promises by organisers to have 20 opened.

The crowd’s anger peaked around 1pm, and the situation remains tense with people shouting for more counters to be opened.

The stadium has a seating capacity of 80,000.

“I have been queueing since 4am and was willing to wait longer before this happened,” a 25-year-old fan, who wanted to be known only as Fahem, told The Malaysian Insight.

Fahem said the organisers had failed to properly manage ticket sales.

“I was willing to spend the night here just to buy the tickets, but the stadium management did not station guards here to oversee the queueing process.

“They just put cones, and we didn’t know how the lines would be,” said the Klang resident.

The queues had stretched to 2km by noon, causing traffic congestion in Shah Alam.

Student Danish Arman said he had been queueing in a 1km line since 11am.

“I have been queueing with my brother since morning. After what had happened, I don’t how it’s going to end,” said the 20-year-old.

Another student, Khairul, said the ticket sales were proceeding peacefully in the morning.

“But around 11.30am the situation grew tense, as some people had cut queues while other impatient supporters charged the place causing the chaos.”

Khairul said the small number of counters selling ticket worsened the situation.

“This is the fault of the organisers as they did not manage the security well,” he said.

Many of the supporters, who came to buy tickets to the Malaysia-Thailand final tomorrow night, said the information flow from the stadium management was poor.

“I wasn’t sure if the counters were open after queueing up for four hours in Giant and only came over to see the situation,” said Nora, a civil servant.

Nora said she had taken the day off today to get tickets for the final.

The Federal Reserve Units (FRU) arrived at 2.30pm to take control of the situation after several groups vented their frustration at the ticketing booth.

The final was scheduled to be held at the Bukit Jalil stadium but lat night, the Football Association of Malaysia switched the venue to Shah Alam.

The public also had problems buying tickets online as they were limited to five each person. – August 28, 2017.