MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Over six million ticket requests for 2014 World Cup, with 70% from Brazil

Opening and final matches at Morumbi and Maracaná stadiums, the most demanded

A total of 6,164,682 requests for tickets for the 2014 FIFA World Cup had been received when the initial application period ended on Thursday 10 October 2013, of which 70.86% were from Brazil, with the remaining 29.14% from the rest of the world.

Requests have been received from 203 different countries, while tickets for the opening match in Sao Paulo (726,067 requests), for the Brazilian team’s matches and for the final (751,165) in the Maracanã stadium on 13 July 2014 were most in demand.

As demand is greatly exceeding supply, FIFA will conduct an electronic random selection draw under notarial supervision for the various matches. During the initial part of the random selection draw, all ticket applications received from those applicants who qualify for priority access, as per the 2014 FIFA World Cup Bill – namely elderly persons, students and members of the Bolsa Familia – will be drawn against the more than 300,000 category 4 tickets reserved. Subsequent steps in the draw will allocate the remaining category 4 tickets as well as the other tickets in all other categories.

All applicants will be informed by e-mail or SMS of whether or not their application was successful by 4 November 2013 at the latest.

The highest number of ticket applications were made by residents in Brazil (4,368,029) followed by those from the USA (374,065), Argentina (266,937), Germany (134,899), Chile (102,288), England (96,780), Australia (88,082), Japan (69,806), Colombia (55,379), and Canada (49,968), in that order. The most popular category on average was category 4. Each applicant was entitled to apply for a maximum of four tickets per match and for a maximum of seven matches. FIFA will use its reasonable endeavors to place the seats adjacent to each other (i.e., beside or in front of each other) as long as the tickets are purchased as part of the same ticket order.

The most popular host cities were Sao Paulo, which will host the opening match on 12 June 2014, Rio de Janeiro and Curitiba. Great interest was also registered in the team-specific ticket series, with already qualified Argentina and the Netherlands being the most sought after in this category.

The ticketing sales process on FIFA.com will reopen on 5 November 2013 and will then remain open until 28 November 2013. During this sales period, tickets will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis, subject to availability. In other words, applications will be processed in the order they are received.