DOHA: The remaining tickets for this year’s World Cup in Qatar will be available on a first-come, first-served basis from next week, FIFA said on Wednesday.

About 1.8 million tickets were sold in the first two batches of sales, FIFA said, without saying how many are now available.

Qatar will host the first World Cup in the Middle East from November 21 to December 18 at eight stadiums in and around the capital, Doha.

The latest tickets will go on sale online from July 5 at 12pm Doha time (0900 GMT) until 12pm on August 16, FIFA said in a press release.

“Huge worldwide interest is anticipated in the new sales period,” the world body said.

Officials said three million tickets are available in total, including those allocated to sponsors.

Last week, the World Cup’s chief organiser Hassan Al-Thawadi said 1.2 million tickets had been sold so far.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino said there were five million ticket requests just for the final at the 80,000-seat Lusail stadium.

There is a special category of tickets available only to residents of host nation Qatar and fans in the Gulf Arab state have bought the largest number of tickets, FIFA said.

Aside from Qatar, the top countries where fans bought tickets are Canada, England, France, Germany, India, Saudi Arabia, Spain, the United Arab Emirates and the United States.

Qualifications for the World Cup have now concluded and all 32 available slots for the tournament have been secured.

Doha, with a population of about 2.4 million and limited accommodation, is bracing itself for a huge influx of visitors for the tournament.

Last month, Qatar announced scores of daily shuttle flights from neighbouring Gulf countries, allowing fans to stay elsewhere and fly in to watch games.

Published in Dawn, June 30th, 2022