Indian fans pocket almost 24k tickets for World Cup so far

World Cup but that hasn't stopped fans from making a once-in-four-years pilgrimage to sample the thrill that this football tournament provides. At Russia in 2018, a total of 17,962 tickets were allocated to Indian fans, taking the country among the top-20 in terms of tickets bought and top-3 among countries that did not qualify for the World Cup. Only fans from United States and China - who didn't qualify -- were allocated more tickets.

Qatar, though, could see the biggest ever Indian contingent of fans, given it's geographically the closest World Cup to India as many cities are just three to four-hour flight away from Doha. "We can confirm that India was among the top 10 countries in the latest sales period according to country of residence," a FIFA spokesperson told TOI on Friday. "In total, across all sales phases, 23,573 tickets have been allocated to fans based in India so far." The 23,573 tickets for fans with residences in India are from the first two ticket sales period where a total of 1.8 million tickets have been sold.

Besides hosts Qatar, the top ten countries for ticket sales based on country of residence in the second sales period include Canada, England, France, Germany, India, Saudi Arabia, Spain, UAE and USA. At the end of the first phase, India were ranked seventh. FIFA, the governing body for world football, said early this week that 1.8 million tickets have already been sold for the World Cup which kicks off on November 21.

Another two lakh tickets are expected to go on sale starting 2.30pm on Wednesday. Among the group-stage games which are most in demand include Argentina versus Mexico at the Lusail Stadium on November 26 and England's encounter against United States at the Al Bayt Stadium. One