Nearly 1.5 million tickets sold for Club World Cup, Fifa says
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The Club World Cup kicked off last weekend in its newly expanded 32-team format across the US.
PHOTO: REUTERS
EAST RUTHERFORD – Fans from over 130 countries have purchased nearly 1.5 million tickets for the Club World Cup that kicked off last weekend in its newly expanded 32-team format across the United States, Fifa said on June 17.
A crowd of over 60,000 turned up for the opener at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium on June 14, which featured Inter Miami’s Argentinian superstar Lionel Messi, while some 80,000 were in the Rose Bowl stands as Champions League winners Paris Saint-Germain beat Atletico Madrid 4-0 a day later.
Yet some games have also been sparsely attended, as a 0-0 draw between Borussia Dortmund and Fluminense that kicked off at midday on June 17 played out to a half-empty MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca also described the atmosphere at his English Premier League team’s match against Los Angeles FC as “a bit strange”, as just a little over 22,000 spectators showed up to the 71,000-capacity Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on June 16.
“The stadium was almost empty. Not full,” the Italian had said. “We prepared for this game also thinking that the environment was a bit different.
“But no doubt that the next one (against Flamengo) will be a nice one because we know that... they always bring many, many fans.”
Fifa, on the other hand, is focusing on the positives regarding the ticket sales.
“This is exactly what the Fifa Club World Cup was created for – a world-class stage where new stories are told, new heroes emerge and club football fans feel part of something bigger,” Fifa president Gianni Infantino said in a statement.
Designed as a glittering curtain-raiser for the 2026 World Cup, football’s world governing body hopes to build enthusiasm for the quadrennial spectacle among often football-ambivalent fans in the US, which will co-host the 48-team tournament with Canada and Mexico.
Concerns had been rampant, however, after a lacklustre Copa America in 2024 that played out on sub-par pitches to half-empty stadiums and ended with a fan security fiasco at the final in Miami. REUTERS
