The ticket prices for today’s African Nations Championships (CHAN) quarter-final match between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo was hiked due to high demand and need to "control pressure”, the president of Rwanda Football Federation (FERWAFA), Vincent Nzamwita explained yesterday.

The prices of tickets were doubled. A VVIP ticket is going for Rwf20,000; VIP for Rwf10,000; yellow seats for Rwf4,000, and the rest of the seats, Rwf1,000.

Speaking to journalists in Kigali, Nzamwita said the CHAN local organising committee (LOC) was aware of the magnitude of attendance the Rwanda-DR Congo encounter would pull, hence devising means to avoid any incidents.

"The ticket prices were increased because of security reasons. We didn’t want to have more people beyond capacity. We had to limit the number of people coming into the stands to the capacity of the stadium,” said Nzamwita, who is also the head of LOC for CHAN.

Today, Rwanda plays neighbours DR Congo in the first tie of CHAN quarterfinals at Amahoro stadium. Kickoff is at 3pm local time.

Amahoro stadium has a capacity of 25,000 people.

Nzamwita said more hikes could come in the future if the Rwandan team continues to the later stages of the tournament. 

Meanwhile, demand for today’s game tickets was immense to the extent that they were sold-out by yesterday 10.00am.

DR Congo fans had been allocated more than 3,000 tickets only accessible at DR Congo embassy in Kigali.

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