Soccer fans snapped up the remaining 210,000 tickets available in the first phase of ticket sales for the 2014 World Cup in seven hours, according to FIFA.



FIFA set aside 1.1 million tickets for the first phase of sales for the tournament, which kicks off in Brazil next June. The first 890,000 of those tickets were allocated under FIFA’s s first “Random Draw” period. It put the remaining 210,000 up for sale Monday on a first come, first serve basis. They sold out in seven hours.

About 62 percent went to Brazilians and 38 percent to international buyers. The top five nations were Brazil followed by the USA, Australia, England and Argentina.

“As expected, the level of interest was impressive, in fact four times greater than during the first sales window,” said FIFA Marketing Director Thierry Weil. “This clearly shows the huge appeal of attending the FIFA World Cup live in Brazil.”
Due to the huge demand with 3.6 million page views, ticket applicants had to wait an average of 45 minutes in the waiting room until they were processed in the order of access of the site to ensure fair access to the ticketing tool. However, the system operated without any problems during the sales process.

Fans looking to attend next year’s flagship football event will have further chances. Further tickets for all 64 matches will be made available after the Final Draw as soon as the second sales phase kicks off Dec. 8, 2013, once the final match schedule for the group stage matches is known. This will also include the 8 percent which are reserved exclusively for the fans of each one of the participating teams for each of their matches – in total 16  percent of the stadium capacity is reserved per match for the fans of the two teams playing.