[Saba Sports News] According to British media reports, hundreds of Ghanaian fans who had travelled thousands of miles to Philadelphia were forced to watch the game on their mobile phones outside the stadium after failing to secure match tickets. Reports stated the fans on site were left confused, with no one seeming to know exactly who was supposed to distribute tickets to the large group of Ghanaian supporters. Some believed members of the supporters’ association were meant to join them with the tickets. One fan told the media that tickets which had been promised to the waiting supporters had ultimately been resold on the secondary ticket market. Police presence at the stadium gates was first doubled, then tripled. Officers stated they had been deployed there for “security purposes” and as a “precautionary measure”. There were several tense moments when a small number of fans got into arguments with police, while the majority lingered outside the venue, scrolling on their phones and discussing the ticketing fiasco with one another.
The editor believes that some fans traveled all the way from Accra, the capital of Ghana, which is roughly 8,000 kilometers in a straight line away from Philadelphia. In the end, they were driven back to the parking lot by the police and could only watch the game on their phones.