By Samindra Kunti in Moscow
June 13 – On the eve of the World Cup, tickets remain for 19 of the 48 group matches, including England’s opening match against Tunisia. Last week FIFA announced 2.4 million tickets had been sold for the tournament.
FIFA’s reputation may be at a low, sponsors haven’t been keen on associating with the governing body and Russia may not be a favourite holiday destination, but fans still show an appetite to attend the World Cup and although there is still ticket availability, FIFA caveats that statement saying that it is a low availability.
Even so, England’s opening game against Tunisia is not sold out. The game is taking place in Volvograd, in the south of Russia, and transport links to the city are limited. France’s opener in Kazan against Australia also has availability in two categories.
Peruvians snapped up 43,583 tickets as of last week, but their fans, who have flooded Moscow in the lead up to the tournament, can still purchase tickets for their curtain raiser against Denmark on Saturday in Saransk. Croatia vs Nigeria is another high-profile match with availability in Kaliningrad.
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 to keep hooligans out of the stadiums and keep the risk of fan violence at 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.
While it was clear the Donald Trump factor had no adverse effect on United 2026, who could not have asked for a more positive outcome after a calm, slick campaign, a brief first glance at the voting patterns flagged up some remarkable results.
Everyone had predicted that a few African votes might go to North America but the fact that around a fifth African nations deserted Morocco in their hour of need will come as a mighty shock to their campaign team and will no doubt lead to some serious internal discussions within the CAF leadership.
Two of Europe’s big-hitters went with Morocco in France and Italy but Spain abstained while perhaps the most astonishing individual European vote of all involved Russia who apparently switched their vote and went for United 2026 despite predictions that it would spearhead eastern European support for the underdogs.
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