The Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) may have successfully raked-in an average of $109 million from the first tranche of tickets sales for the forthcoming World Cup final in Moscow, Russia next year.
Already, the excitement started building two month ago as requests for the World Cup tickets remained high since September 14. As at the end of the phase-1 sales window, out of some 3,496,204 tickets initially requested, a total of 742,760 tickets were successfully sold to subscribers. The majority of ticket applications came from host nation Russia with 47 per cent, while all other nations had tickets allocated equivalent to 53 per cent of the total number of sold tickets.
FIFA’s Head of Ticketing, Falk Eller, said the world football body was already overwhelmed by the positive response from both the host country and international fans.
“We are again expecting high demand once sales. Considering such remarkable interest in the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia from fans all over the world, we will like to once again stress that the only official, legitimate and user-friendly source to purchase tickets is the FIFA.com/tickets website. Fans who purchase tickets from other sources put themselves at significant risk of missing out on the World Cup, and of course, we will not want that to happen,” Eller said.
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The first window of phase-1 ticket sales started on September 14 and ended October12; while the second window also in phase-1 which started on November 16 lasted till 28th.
The first window in phase-two will open on December 5 to January 31; while the second window in Phase-2 opens March 13 until April 3, 2018. The last phase of the world cup ticket according to the world’s football governing body will start from April 18 to July 15, 2018.
The most expensive ticket for 2018 final will be $1,108, up from $990 for 2014 final in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. However, Russian residents get significantly discounted tickets. While the Category 4 ticket is reserved exclusively for residents of Russia; Categories 1, 2 and 3 are available to all customers.
For the opening match, BusinessDay checks on FIFA website for individual match tickets show Category 1 spectators are paying $550 for the ticket; Category 2 ($390); Category 3 ($220); and Category 4 ($55). For the Group Matches, Category 1 ticket costs $210; Category 2 ($165); Category 3 ($105); while Category 4 ticket costs $21.
The ticket prices for Round of 16 shows Category 1 costs $245; Category 2 ($185); Category 3 ($115); and Category 4 ($37).
The ticket price for Quarter Finals shows Category 1 spectators are paying $365; Category 2 ($255); Category 3 ($175) and Category 4 ($65). World Cup ticket prices for Semi-final show $750 for Category 1 spectators; while Category 2 fans are buying tickets at $480; Category 3 ($285); and Category 4 ($78).
For the third-place match (Play-off), Category 1 fans are buying the tickets for $365; while Category 2 fans are paying $255; Category 3 ($175); and while Category 4 fans are buying the ticket for $65. Category 1 fans will pay $1,100 for the Final Game while Category 2 fans pay $710; Category 3 ($455); while Category 4 fans are paying $122 for the ticket.
On the first phase of ticket sales, most of the applications are from Russia, while international demand accounts for more than 30 percent. German, Brazilian, Argentinian, Mexican, US, Colombian, Egyptian, Chinese, and Polish fans all rank in the top 10, while around 150,000 tickets have been requested for the Opening Match and more than 300,000 for the Final.
Nigeria’s senior male soccer national team, the Super Eagles with other 31 qualified nations will know their group-stage opponents as the draw for next year’s World Cup takes place in Russia today. Each team has been placed in one of four pots. The four World Cup pots have been filled depending on each team’s FIFA World ranking as of October 2017.
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Russia has automatically been placed in pot 1 as hosts and is joined by the top-seven ranked teams in the world ranking including Germany, Brazil, Portugal, Argentina, Belgium, Poland and France.
The next eight top-ranked teams are in pot two; the following eight in pot three and the lowest-ranked eighth in pot four where Nigeria and other seven teams are. Eight groups will be drawn in total, from A-H. Each group will contain one team from each pot. No team can be drawn alongside another team from the same pot.
No teams from the same confederation, except for UEFA, will be drawn in the same group. A maximum of two European countries can be in any group.
Nigeria was the first African country to book a berth in Russia and finished unbeaten in Africa’s Group B, winning all their home games with two draws and a victory away under German coach Gernot Rohr.
The nation, which is the only one of Africa’s five representatives from the last World Cup who returns for the 2018 edition in Russia, will be looking to get into the last round of 16 in Brazil.
Already, a crop of exciting youngsters headlines the national team representing Africa’s most populous nation including Leicester City’s Kelechi Iheanacho, Arsenal’s Alex Iwobi, Henry Onyekuru and Moses Simon represent a new generation that has emerged since the 2014 finals as Nigeria surprisingly qualified easily from a tough group that included Algeria, who also reached the second round of the last World Cup, and African champions Cameroon.
The winning team at next year’s World Cup in Russia will be awarded a record $38million (£29m) in prize money, after world football governing body Fifa boosted its financial offering to record levels. A total prize money pool of $400million represents a 12 per cent increase on the $358million paid out to teams at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, where victors Germany received $35million. The money is paid to a nation’s football association, who will have negotiated their own financial agreements with their players. Ahead of the World Cup, each competing team will be paid $1.5million to cover preparation costs. Once in Russia, each of the 32 teams will be guaranteed a participation fee of $8million. Progressing through to the first knock-out stage boosts the prize to $9million while a quarter-final finish is worth $14million. In the much-derided third place play-off, $42million is shared between the two sides with the victor taking home $22million. Runners-up in the final can console themselves with a $25million prize as the winners take home $38million.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino said the prize money increase represented “a positive sign in terms of the healthy financial situation of Fifa”, despite the organisation’s $369million loss in 2016. The tournament begins on 14 June with Russia playing the opener at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow. Of the 32 teams, 20 will be making back-to-back appearances following the last edition of the tournament in 2014, including defending champions Germany, while Iceland and Panama will both be making their first appearances at a FIFA World Cup. A total of 64 matches will be played in 12 venues located in 11 cities. The final will take place on 15 July in Moscow at the Luzhniki Stadium.
Iheanyi Nwachukwu & Anthony Nlebem
