The FIFA World Cup finals remain the biggest single sport event the world over – only second the multi-disciplined Olympics. Even as only 32 countries will participate in the quadrennial competition, fans from across the world descend for the games.
No other sport discipline, except the Olympics, witnesses more spectators than a FIFA World Cup. As Qatar prepares to host the 2022 finals, the world governing body for football is flooded with requests for the World Cup. According to media reports, FIFA has received interest for 17 million tickets in the first round of sales for the World Cup finals.
There are a little over two million tickets for grabs for the first World Cup in an Arab country.
The FIFA World Cup finals will be staged across eight venues, in five cities, of Morocco from November 21 to December 18.
The highest numbers of tickets are sought by the fans from the host nation. Fans from Argentina, Brazil, England, France, India, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and the United States are also not far behind.
The demand for the final has exceeded 25 times the stadium capacity. The Lusail Stadium which will host the decider on December 18 can house up to a maximum of 80,000 spectators. FIFA has already received demand for 1.8 million tickets.
The tickets will be distributed by a computer lottery and the fans will get to know about their fate by March 8.
Applications for tickets started on January 19 and closed on Tuesday. FIFA said it will be checking the applications before tickets are allocated.
The world body said it would decide on the timing of a “first come, first served phase” of ticket sales depending on what is still available.
FIFA is expecting more than $500 million from tickets, broadcasting rights and other World Cup commercial revenues.
