Soccer fans lucky enough to have snagged tickets in the latest draw for the upcoming FIFA World Cup will have their credit cards charged and orders finalized starting Monday, while countless others take to social media to express their disappointment with being unable to secure any seats for the tournament.
The random selection draw concluded in mid-January, with the organization saying applicants would be notified via email sometime after Feb. 4 about whether they were successful in snagging seats.
There are three results that can happen with the application: it’s successful, it’s partially successful or it’s unsuccessful. A successful application, FIFA says, grants fans the tickets that they were searching for.
A partially successful application means only part of the ticket request has been fulfilled, FIFA says, which means fans might have only gotten tickets to only one or two matches out of the three they applied for.
In the first two instances, fans will automatically be charged for their orders starting Monday.
FIFA previously said there were more than 500 million requests for tickets submitted during the random selection draw period.
“With each application validated by unique credit card data, fans placed an average of 15 million ticket requests per day over the 33-day application window, setting a new benchmark for demand in the history of world sport,” FIFA said.
FIFA has said that a round-of-32 match on July 2 was among the five most requested games.
However, the extent of demand for the other five matches scheduled for Toronto is not entirely clear.
This random selection draw is the final in a series of lotteries where fans were given an opportunity to apply for a chance to buy face-value tickets.
Anyone unlucky in this draw still has another chance to score tickets at face-value during the last-minute sales phase starting in April, where FIFA says tickets will be doled out on a first-come, first-served basis.
Were you able to secure tickets for any of Toronto World Cup games? Are you a lifelong soccer fan who is disappointed at the prospect that you might not be able to attend FIFA World Cup games in Toronto? Are you considering purchasing costly resale tickets to attend a World Cup game in Toronto. CTV News Toronto wants to hear from you.
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With files from CP24’s Joshua Freeman
