Football
ESPN staff 10y

1950 ticket gets fan 2014 final seat

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.

#INSERT type:image caption:Very different from 1950: the Maracana in 2014. END#

And 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.

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