More than 588,000 tickets, 71% of the total inventory, have been sold for next month's Confederations Cup in Brazil. The event will exceed the average capacity of 83% set at the 2005 Festival of Champions. Tickets will remain on sale through May 24 on FIFA's website. The last remaining tickets will then be sold online and at one of the six FIFA venue ticketing centers starting on June 1 (FIFA). REUTERS reported that this year's event "will be the best attended ever." FIFA Marketing Dir Thierry Weil said, "Yet we are very confident that we will break another record for the FIFA Confederations Cup, with the Brazilians providing the global TV audience with a glimpse of what kind of stadium atmosphere to expect in 2014." Some 58,000 tickets have been sold for Brazil's opening match against Japan in Brasilia and 60,000 have already gone for the final, but Tahiti versus Nigeria in Belo Horizonte "is proving less of a draw" with only 10,000 sold so far. FIFA said that 97% of the tickets sold so far "had been purchased by Brazilians" (REUTERS, 5/7).
