Russia 2018 ticket demand heats up with 3m+ requests, 38% from overseas

January 16 – Football fans around the world remain keen on attending the World Cup, the quadrennial high mass of the global game. In all, 3,141,163 tickets have been requested in the second sales phase, which runs until the end of January. 

In the second sales phase of World Cup ticketing more than three million tickets have been requested so far. The second window opened on December 5, days after the final draw in Moscow. In this sales phases tickets will be allocated by lottery when a match is oversubscribed. In the first sales phase 620,000 tickets were allocated. 

Fans are still seeking to secure their tickets and demand has been high around the world, with international applications accounting for 38% of ticket requests. Somewhat unsurprisingly, appetite among European football fans seems limited. From Europe, only Germany, Spain and Poland made the top ten of countries applying for tickets.

Fans can apply for individual match tickets for all games, except the opening match between Russia and Saudi Arabia and the final. Venue-specific and team-specific tickets can also be requested. All matches have enjoyed medium to high demand, except for Costa Rica vs Serbia in Samara, Switzerland vs Costa Rica in Nizhny Novgorod and  Panama vs Tunisia in Saransk, with the second sales phase ending on January 31. In the first 24 hours of this phase 1,318,109 tickets had been requested. 

All fans attending matches at the World Cup need to apply for a ‘FAN ID’ following a request from the Russian authorities. The special ID is designed with the purpose to keep hooligans out of the stadium and reduce the risk of fan violence to a minimum. At Euro 2016 Russian fans were involved in violent clashes with their English counterparts in Marseille ahead of the two countries’ group stage match.

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