June 24 – Football is one of eight sports at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics this August that will use a lottery system to decide which ticketholders can attend matches.
Venue capacities in Japan for the men’s and women’s tournaments will be limited to either 50% or a maximum of 10,000 people.
The country has already said its borders are closed to travelling fans with a government warning that stadiums may be closed completely if there is another spike in covid cases.
Fans will be required to wear masks at all times and have been asked to refrain from cheering, high-fiving or linking arms.
The men’s and women’s tournaments are to be played July 21 to August 7, using seven stadiums in six cities.
Two stadiums will be played in the Olympic host city of Tokyo with other matches being plaued in Kashima, Saitama, Sapporo, Sendai and Yokohama. The competition will be played by 16 men’s teams and 12 women’s.
Despite significant public opposition to hosting the Olympic, the organisers nevertheless have sold 4.48 million tickets with 840,000 having already been refunded.
Overall the total number of tickets for the Olympics will be reduced to 2.72 million, hence the introduction of the lottery system.
The local organisers that tickets will be allocated on July 6.
Other sports that will be in the ticket lottery system are athletics, baseball, golf, modern pentathlon, rugby sevens, softball and surfing.
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