Over 1.3 million tickets have been allocated both to domestic and international football fans after the closure of the first period of Phase 2 of ticket sales for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, which kicks off less than 100 days in Russia, the FIFA said in its statement on Monday.
“A few days after celebrating 100 days to go until the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia, the outcome of the most recent tickets sales period has now been confirmed, with 568,448 tickets allocated following the second random selection draw sales window from 5 December to 31 January,” the statement said
“This is on top of the 735,168 tickets allocated during the first sales phase, which makes a total of 1,303,616 tickets allocated since the start of ticket sales in September 2017,” according to the FIFA.
Since the requests for tickets exceeded the available supply, they were allocated based on “a random selection draw for ticket allocation.”
“Most of them are going to Russian fans (197,832) followed by fans from Colombia (33,048), Brazil (24,656), Peru (21,946), Germany (21,639), USA (20,347), Mexico (18,155), Australia (15,906), Argentina (15.214), England (14,890) and Poland (13,686) – the top ten countries from abroad,” the FIFA stated.
The Phase 2 of ticket sales for the quadrennial world football championship was divided into two periods, just like during the preceding Phase 1.
The first period of the Phase 2 of ticket sales was launched on December 5, 2017 and closed on January 31, 2018. December 5 was also the date for the resumption of ticket sales in the Category 4, which was especially introduced by FIFA for this upcoming world football championship and is reserved exclusively for Russian residents.
The second period of Phase 2 dubbed as the “First-come, first served” will open on March 13 and provide sales services until its closure on April 3.
“With only 94 days left until the FIFA World Cup opening match, we continue to be very happy with the outcome of ticket sales,” the statement quoted FIFA Secretary General Fatma Samoura as saying. “The huge demand by both local and international fans highlights the great sense of anticipation and excitement that Russia 2018 is sparking around the world.”
Phase 3, dubbed as the “Last Minute Sales,” will run from April 18 up until the final match day of the competition and the remaining tickets will be available for purchase on a first-come first-serve basis.
Russia selected 11 host cities to be the venues for the matches of the 2018 World Cup and they are Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan, Saransk, Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Samara.
The matches of the 2018 World Cup will be held between June 14 and July 15 at 12 stadiums located in the 11 mentioned above cities across Russia. Two of the stadiums are located in the Russian capital.