The number of match tickets sold for the 2022 World Cup stands at 1.2 million after the second phase of sales, the secretary general of the Organizing Committee, Hassan Al-Thawadi, announced on Wednesday.
“I think the demand is record high,” Al-Thawadi said at the Qatar Economic Forum in Doha. “People are eager to come, there’s no doubt,” he said, while some supporters’ associations are worried about the price of flights, accommodation or their rights in the rich and conservative emirate. of the Gulf.
“We try to create an environment in which the economy benefits but which is also affordable and accessible for the fans, which is not always easy to balance”, conceded the leader, assuring that new hotels enter regularly. on the accommodation platform for spectators with tickets.
The issue of human rights? What question ?
While the country has been challenged by NGOs on the issue of respect for human rights, and especially migrant workers, Al-Thawadi once again insisted on the “progress” made since the awarding of the tournament in 2010, speaking of “poor representation of the facts (…) and of what is happening on the ground”.
In total, the organizers of the first World Cup in an Arab country, from November 21 to December 18, said they had registered 40 million ticket requests: 17 million during the first sales phase and 23 during the second.
Just over three million tickets are available (two million for sale and one million reserved for FIFA and its partners). For the next phase of sales, the dates of which are not known, the principle of first come, first served will apply.