Neymar & suspension of Passolig attracting fans to Turkey – Brazil game [divider]
Passolig will not be enforced for the international friendly to be played between Turkey and Brazil at the Şükrü Saracoğlu stadium.
Turkish crowd attendances have hit a record low as fans continue to boycott games following the introduction of the Passolig system.
The actual company issuing the cards has access to the supporters’ national identity data, bank accounts and other private data.
Fans groups are highly critical of the system who say their details could be used for surveillance and also being forced to pay the bank running Passolig commission on every sale.
The cards are issued by investment bank Aktif Yatirim Bankasi AS, owned by Calik Holding AS, which until December 2013 was run by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s son-in-law.
The bank had $1.3 billion of short-term debt as of June, which rates it six levels below investment grade according to Bloomberg.
“It’s about soccer only on the face of it,” Akşar said.
“The real aim is for the bank to reach a group of money-spending consumers who are not part of its current portfolio.”
40,000 tickets have already been sold for the Turkey – Brazil game and all seats are expected to sell out by game time.
The Brazil national side have received a lot of media attention and the prospect of seeing stars like Oscar and Neymar has resulted in a lot of interest.
Neymar has been greeted by large numbers of fans wherever he has trained or travelled during his trip to Turkey.
