Email High demand as World Cup ticket sales begin

Sao Paulo: Tickets for next year’s World Cup went on sale online on Tuesday with 16 of the 64 immediately seeing a high number of applicants, including the opening match in Sao Paulo and the final in Rio de Janeiro. FIFA’s website shows there are more ticket applicants than the number of seats available in all four price categories for the opener and the final at Maracana Stadium, meaning the chances of securing a ticket will depend on a random selection draw conducted by football’s governing body in October. The other matches had a high demand for tickets only in the cheapest category, available to Brazilians. Tickets went up for grabs 1000 GMT and applications quickly started pouring in. The FIFA website said there was a virtual queue “due to an exceedingly high demand for access to the ticketing page.”