ShareDOHA: The remaining tickets for this year's World Cup in Qatar will be available on a first-come, first-served basis from next week, FIFA said on Wednesday. About 1.8 million tickets were sold in the first two batches of sales, FIFA said, without saying how many are now available. Qatar will host the first World Cup in the Middle East from November 21 to December 18 at eight stadiums in and around the capital, Doha.
The latest tickets will go on sale online from July 5 at 12pm Doha time until 12pm on August 16, FIFA said in a press release. "Huge worldwide interest is anticipated in the new sales period," the world body said. Officials said three million tickets are available in total, including those allocated to sponsors.
Last week, the World Cup's chief organizer Hassan Al-Thawadi said 1.2 million tickets had been sold so far. FIFA president Gianni Infantino said there were five million ticket requests just for the final at the 80,000-seat Lusail stadium. Doha, with a population of about 2.4 million and limited accommodation, is bracing itself for a huge influx of visitors for the 32-team tournament. Last month, Qatar announced scores of daily shuttle flights from neighboring Gulf countries, allowing fans to stay elsewhere and fly in to watch games.
World Cup fans
Meanwhile, Qatar said on Tuesday that World Cup fans have "a lot of options" with more than 100,000 rooms currently available and tens of thousands more expected by the tournament's kickoff. Some football supporters have expressed concern that they have been unable to find accommodation in line with their budget for the World Cup, which runs from November 21 to December 18. Prices range from 300 Qatari rials (just over $80) to several thousand dollars per night.
Qatar has so far taken more than 25,000 bookings, said Omar Al-Jaber, the official in charge of accommodation for the tournament's organizing committee, specifying that he was taking about "bookings, not rooms or nights". "If you go through our website, you will find a lot of options," he told reporters on a tour of an available apartment in Doha. "And if you don't find it today, you need to check tomorrow or after tomorrow... because... we add more inventory to this portal.
"More than 100,000 rooms (are) available as of today," he said. "If we go to November, maybe we'll reach more than 130,000 rooms or 140,000 rooms." Supporters normally find accommodation themselves for such tournaments. But Qatar - set to host the most geographically concentrated World Cup in history and with limited hotel capacity - is seeking to channel supporters through an official platform that is reserved for ticket holders and managed by the tournament's organizers.
Eighty-five percent of accommodation - whether permanent or temporary - is now complete and the remainder will be finished by a "deadline" of end-August, according to Jaber. The country will be closed to visitors without match tickets during the course of the tournament, Jaber said. As of Tuesday, the US, Mexico, United Kingdom, Argentina and India accounted for some of the biggest sources of reservations. - AFP
