Tbilisi Super Cup: Ticket website overloaded, no tickets sold

The only website selling tickets to the much-anticipated Barcelona-Sevilla game has crashed after 10,000 football fans tried accessing the site this morning.

People wanting to buy a ticket to the Barcelona-Sevilla Tbilisi Super Cup are being asked to remain patient after the online shop responsible for selling the tickets went down this morning.

Tbilisi-based online shop www.biletebi.ge said its website was "attacked” and the "system was overloaded” earlier this morning, frustrating football fans near and far.

Tickets were meant to go on sale via Biletebi.ge today, June 22, at 9am for the August 11 match but fans who loaded the website were greeted with the message: "We are under attack”.

The caption was later changed to "System is overloaded. Please try again later”. 

The website was tested before UEFA paid €45,000 for the service, but the website administration today said a higher number of people loaded the website this morning, which was why it had crashed.

President of Georgia’s Football Federation Zviad Sichinava said the website was the only place people in Georgia and abroad could purchase tickets for the August 11 match.

"The system was meant for 2,500 buyers a minute. Today we have been informed that 10,000 users had loaded the website in one minute at 9:05pm this morning,” he said.

"Of course this caused problems.”

He noted the company was "trying its best” to correct its server and begin selling tickets. As of 1.5pm no official tickets have yet been sold to the match. Sichinava warned the public not to purchase tickets from unauthorized dealers, as these tickets were not genuine.

FC Barcelona and Sevilla FC will come to Georgia to compete in the second straight all-Spanish UEFA Super Cup.

The match will take place at the Boris Paichadze Dinamo Arena in Tbilisi on Tuesday, August 11.

Tickets were supposed to be sold on www.biletebi.ge from July 22. About 30,000 tickets will be open to Georgian fans while the remaining 25,000 will go to UEFA officials and fans of the participating teams. The capacity of the stadium is about 55,000.