Some fans have expressed frustration while trying to buy tickets for Singapore’s Asean Football Federation (AFF) Championship home group games.

The Lions face Myanmar on Dec 24 and Vietnam on Dec 30 at the 6,000-seater Jalan Besar Stadium. 

Grandstand, Gallery East tickets plus tickets for the Singapore-Maldives friendly on Dec 17 went up for sale on Monday at noon through the Ticketmaster website.

While ticket sales started promptly, fans said only one of the 20 sections for home fans was available for selection initially. More sections opened up only later.

Kenneth Lee, 30, who works in the finance industry, said he was left confused when he logged on at noon.

He added: “I had a shock when I was only able to see one section (section A) open...

“I was expecting all the sections to be available so to see just one, I thought I was not going to be able to get what I wanted.”

About two hours later, more sections were open and he was able to secure tickets to both matches.

Prem Kumar, 28, said that he had waited from 10am hoping to snap up his preferred seats closer to the tunnel but was disappointed to find only one section open.

He said: “Usually when you log on at the time when ticket sales open, you get good seats.

“But here, you got better seats if you waited.”

Prem said that he was fearful that he would lose out on tickets if he waited and settled for a seat at the only available section, only to find out hours later that other fans had a wider selection to choose from.

Another fan, Mohammad Rizal, said that when he first tried to purchase tickets online at about 12.10pm, it showed that there was only one section available.

Sensing that it was possibly down to a glitch, he tried again about an hour later and found that he could not find three seats together. Previously, there were no issues as it was free seating.

Rizal, 37, who is planning to watch the Singapore-Myanmar tie with his family, said: “It was only at my third attempt when I was finally able to get three (seats) together.

“In the past, when you bought a grandstand ticket, it was a case of first come, first serve. Now, they are ticketed seats which adds to the confusion and frustration.”

Responding to queries from The Straits Times, the Football Association of Singapore’s director of commercial & marketing Jonathan Wong said that it had experienced a temporary technical difficulty with the website upon the launch of ticket sales.

He said: “However, the situation was quickly investigated and resolved within 20 minutes and the website has been working smoothly since.

“We appreciate fans’ patience during the unexpected down time.”

Wong also added that while demand is high for tickets, they were not sold out yet.

“Demand for the tickets for the three matches has been high as seen from the high level of interest shown by fans to purchase the tickets from the moment they went on sale this afternoon. Fans are still able to purchase tickets for each of the three matches although the quantities are moving fast,” said Wong.

A check by ST at 9pm on Tuesday showed that tickets for eight of the 20 home sections for the Myanmar match were still available, but some sections were selling fast or had limited availability.

Some fans also encountered issues trying to purchase allocated seats together – it is usually free seating at Jalan Besar.

On why FAS has allocated seats this time, Wong explained: “We are obliged to adhere to the regulation of implementing controlled seating which was made in accordance with the AFF ME Cup 2022 Stadium Safety Regulations.

“This was also the practice deployed during last year’s edition of the regional showpiece.” 

The Lions’ matches, including the away ties in Laos (Dec 27) and Malaysia (Jan 3), will be shown live on Mediacorp Channel 5.

The top two from each group will advance to the two-legged semi-finals.

If the Lions progress from the group stage, they will stage their home matches at the 55,000-seater National Stadium.