Organizers on Wednesday announced that about 1.2 million tickets for this year’s World Cup in Qatar had been sold, putting a figure on sales for the first time.
Chief organiser Hassan Al-Thawadi said there had been “record-breaking” demand for the November-December World Cup, the first held in the Middle East. “I think about 1.2 million tickets have already been purchased,” he told the Qatar Economic Forum.
“So people are actually buying and people are excited to come there. There´s no doubt about that.”
The figure was confirmed by organising committee officials, who said there were about 40 million requests in the two phases of sales.
With further reference to ticket applications, FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, stated that more than 5 million requests have been made for tickets to the final match to be played at Lusail Stadium which has 80,000 seats available in the stadium.
In total two million tickets have been assigned for sale football fans to attend the various matches and stages of the almost four-week-long sporting event.
As 1.2million tickets have already been sold, this means just 800,000 more tickets will be available for the public to purchase.
Group stages will run from Monday November 21 until Friday December 2, with the round of 16 running between Saturday December 3 and Tuesday December 6.
The quarter-finals will be held on Friday December 9 and Saturday December 10, followed by the semi-finals on Tuesday December 13 and Wednesday December 14.
The showdown for third place will happen on Saturday December 17, followed by the final on Sunday December 18 – which coincides with Qatar National Day.
Qatari capital Doha, with a population of about 2.4 million, is bracing itself for the huge influx of visitors, with hotel accommodation extremely scarce. Some fans will stay in 1,000 traditional Qatari tents, while others will sleep on cruise ships docked in Doha.
