FIFA announced on Thursday that the number of tickets sold for the 2022 World Cup had reached 2.45 million ahead of the final stage of sales planned for the competition to be held in Qatar (November 20-December 18).

At the new stage of sales, organized from July 5 to August 16, 520,532 additional tickets were sold, according to the organizer of the FIFA World Cup.

Fans living in Qatar, the United States, England, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, the United Arab Emirates, France, Argentina, Brazil and Germany top the list of ticket sales by country of residence, FIFA added.

As for the group stage matches, the international federation clarified that the “most successful” matches were Cameroon – Brazil (Group G), Brazil – Serbia (Group G), Portugal – Uruguay (Group H), Costa Rica – Germany ( group E) and Australia – Denmark (group D).

In June, organizers mentioned “record demand” for tickets, with 1.2 million tickets sold so far. At the beginning of July, FIFA called 1.8 million tickets sold.

A total of 3,010,679 tickets are available for World Cup 2022. The figure of 2.45 million corresponds to tickets sold for all categories (general public, FIFA partners, federations, etc.).

Qatar, which has a population of 2.8 million, expects more than a million visitors. This is the first football World Cup to be hosted by an Arab country.

A final phase of sales, called “last minute”, is planned around the tournament, according to FIFA.

The World Football Forum will announce the start date for this final phase at the end of September, which will also be on a first-come, first-served basis and will run until the end of the competition on 18 December. writes Agerpres.