Almost 90 percent of the tickets to the 2018 FIFA World Cup matches have been sold, chairman of the tournament's organizing committee Alexey Sorokin said Thursday.
Sorokin was speaking at a meeting hosted in Sochi by Russian President Vladimir Putin on the state of preparation for the World Cup, business daily Vedomosti reported.
According to Sorokin, fans have already purchased 2.374 million tickets to the 64 matches of the international football tournament, which accounts for 89 percent of all available tickets.
“We can already predict that we will have full stands at each match of the World Cup,” Sorokin said.
Russian fans acquired 46 percent of the tickets, while foreign fans have a 54 percent share. Among the foreigners, fans from the United States, China, Colombia, Mexico and Argentina have bought up the most tickets. This is despite the U.S. and Chinese national teams failing to qualify for the tournament.
The last phase of ticket sales began on April 18 and will continue through to the tournament final on July 15.
This week fans were given the option of buying tickets in person when ticket offices opened in the 11 host cities on May 1. Tickets can still be purchased via the FIFA website.
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