FIFA praised on Thursday the demand for World Cup 2018 tickets in the first sales phase which ended this week, two days ahead of the draw.

Head of ticketing Falk Eller said the majority of tickets were sold to the host nation – Russia, with U.S. soccer fans following despite the fact that they did not qualify.

“We have closed the first sales phase earlier this week. We have allocated 750,000 tickets to fans from Russia and international countries. We are very, extremely happy with the outcome.

“We’re happy with the demand we’ve seen. We’re happy with the number of tickets which we’ve allocated. Of course we are also happy that the operation went quite well, no technical glitches, no problems. We are very pleased,” Falk Eller said.

The tickets are split into four categories with prices ranging in the 1st category from 215 USD for the group stage to almost 1,130 USD for the final. The 4th category tickets, allocated for Russian citizens, cost almost 10 times less.

The second stage of ticket sales starts on December 5. Russia will host the 2018 World Cup finals in 12 venues spread across 11 cities.

Reuters