The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) has revealed that 2.45 million tickets have been sold for this year’s World Cup in Qatar.
On Thursday, FIFA noted that more than half a million of the tickets were sold from July 5-16, the last sales period.
“Fans living in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United States, Mexico, the United Arab Emirates, England, Argentina, Brazil, Wales and Australia led the way and the digital queues by securing the biggest number of tickets,” Fifa said.
According to the Association, largest number of allocated tickets were for group stage matches like Cameroon v Brazil, Brazil v Serbia, Portugal v Uruguay, Costa Rica v Germany and Australia v Denmark.
In late September, the launch date for the next sales phase will be announced.
Over-the-counter sales will also start in Doha after the launch of the last-minute sales phase, FIFA added.
The 2022 World Cup tournament is expected to commence on Sunday, November 20, instead of November 21, 2022.
Host Qatar and Ecuador will also be opening the tournament with their game in place of the Senegal and Netherlands game.
Initially, the Qatar vs Ecuador game was fixed as the third match in the Group A opener.
The changes follow a request from South American confederation Conmebol to Qatar and Ecuador indicating that it fits in with the tradition of either the hosts or the holders being involved in the opening match.