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3 million football World Cup tickets are up for grabs

Almost a year from now, the biggest show on earth will kick off in Brazil, but the first tranche of tickets will be released at 3.30pm today.

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In box office lingo, it is akin to a lethal combination of a Holi-Eid-Dussehra-Diwali release. As a strictly sporting spectacle, though, it’s when the scamper for tickets for the football World Cup, which is scheduled to be held in Brazil
from June 12 to July 13 next year, will begin.

FIFA, the world football governing body that has more member-countries than the United Nations, is offering three million tickets worldwide for the World Cup over the next 10 months. Indian fans, many of them from Mumbai, will join their football crazy counterparts in the rest of the world for a slice of the pie as the first phase of ticket sales for the biggest football show on the earth begins at 3.30pm (IST) on Tuesday.

“It is my dream to see a match in the Maracana stadium,” says Mumbai-based artist Riyas Komu, referring to the stadium in Rio de Janeiro, considered the temple of football.

“Though I am an Indian, I feel that a World Cup in Brazil is something happening on my own ground and that I am the host. It may be because of my admiration for Brazilian football,” gushes Komu, who had travelled to South Africa for the 2010 World Cup.

The admiration for the Brazilian team is a national theme as far as Indian football fans are concerned. The All India Football Federation, a FIFA member, expects “a lot of Indian fans” to travel more than halfway across the globe to watch the World Cup. “Indian football fans associate themselves with the Brazilian national team and their style of creative football. They will be eager to cheer them on the soil of Brazil,” says federation secretary Kushal Das.

According to the South African Tourism India office in Mumbai, nearly 3,500 Indian fans visited South Africa for the 2010 World Cup — the first in the African continent.

If the interest in the Brazil tournament is any indication, that number could see a sharp rise despite the high cost of flying to Latin America, and the morale-dampening protests across Brazil during the Confederations Cup in June against official corruption and inadequate investment in education and health care for Brazilians.

“We received bookings and enquiries from several football clubs and fans in Goa in the past few months,” says Shaji Thomas, commercial manager, Goa, of Qatar Airways, the Middle East carrier that operates daily flights to Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city and venue of the opening match of the World Cup on June 12.

Fans are also being offered World Cup packages by holiday companies. British travel company Thomas Cook’s entry-level package for group matches in Rio de Janeiro costs $2,000 dollars (about Rs1.23 lakh), which includes tickets for one to two matches and three-star accommodation for three nights, but without flight tickets.

The package goes up to $19,000 (about Rs11.7 lakh) for a mouthwatering semifinal and a final ticket offer with seven nights of stay and local transportation.

“Brazil is the next ‘it’ destination, and the World Cup holds allure not merely for football crazy fans, but also for Gen Y, corporate groups and the discerning luxury traveller,” says Rajeev Kale, COO, Thomas Cook (India), who recognises the Indian travellers’ new interest in sports tourism.

“While metros like Mumbai and Delhi have traditionally accounted for the bulk of our sports tourism bookings, we have observed a growing demand from mini metros and tier-II markets like Bhopal, Chandigarh, Indore, Coimbatore, Hyderabad.”

In the first phase of sales by FIFA, fans will be able to apply for tickets on its website (www.fifa.com) from August 20 to October 10 for up to seven matches and a maximum of four tickets per match. If the demand exceeds the number of tickets available, there will be a random selection draw.
For those who do not get tickets, another chance is given on a first-come-first-served basis during November 5-28, again on the FIFA website.

The second phase of sales runs from December 8 to January 30 in a random selection draw and from February 26 to April 1 on a first-come-first-served basis.

For the still unsuccessful fans, there will be a third and last phase, called the ‘last minute sales phase’, from April 15 to July 13, which will be a first-come-first-served sale.

Interestingly, out of a schedule showing matches like B1XB4 and H2XH3, fans will not know until December 6 (when the final draw will be announced) which teams they are opting for, except A1 (Brazil), an automatic selection as the host.

The new IPL-like IMG Reliance football tournament proposed for early next year and expected to involve some big international stars could see the interest in football among Indian fans soar. And India’s 145th position on FIFA rankings is no dampener. For Indian fans who are fortunate enough to land a World Cup ticket, it will be a passport to a continent of Circe, where instead of song and dance, it will be a treat of samba and soccer.

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