• World Cup

1950 ticket gets fan World Cup final seat

ESPN staff
June 29, 2014
Brazil survive early exit scare

A man who had a ticket for the 1950 World Cup final at the Maracana but missed it will attend the same stadium for the 2014 showpiece - because he never threw the ticket away.

Brazilian Joedir Belmont, who was a 21-year-old when he bought the ticket, offered it to world football's governing body as an artefact to go on display in its football museum.

A change in circumstances meant he had been unable to attend the 'Maracanazo' match - which Brazil lost 2-1 when a draw under the old pool system would have guaranteed them the title - but he nevertheless hung on to the ticket, which he kept in mint condition.

That has led FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke to offer Belmont, now 85, and two of his children tickets for the 2014 final in what is now a very different-looking Maracana.

"A few months ago, we received a letter from a Brazilian man who said he might be one of the only people to still have a match ticket from 1950," Valcke told FIFA's website. "He knew that we were going to open a football museum.

"We said that we'd love to have it. And now in return, we've given him tickets."

Belmont told the website that he would definitely be there this time - and was hoping for a much happier result. "I'm hoping to get to see the match this time and for Brazil to be crowned champions," he said.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd
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