Australia "might have been given the toughest task of any nation at the World Cup," but that "hasn’t stopped fans buying the second-highest number of tournament match tickets from any foreign country," according to Sebastian Hassett of THE AGE. FIFA announced on Wednesday that Socceroos fans had snapped up 40,681 tickets to World Cup matches, only behind the U.S., which has sold 154,412. Australia "is even ahead of ahead of England," who sits third on the foreign list, selling a total of 38,043 tickets. Virtually "nobody is giving Australia a shot of qualifying for the second stage" after being drawn against Chile, the Netherlands and defending champions Spain, and that the Socceroos’ opening match on June 13 is in the isolated city of Cuiaba." Nonetheless, fans "have jumped at the chance to make a South American pilgrimage." FIFA Marketing Dir Theirry Weil said, "The interest in the 2014 FIFA World Cup is amazing. Teams will have a strong fan base in Brazil, as people are coming from all over the world for the tournament which will make history for sure” (THE AGE, 4/2).
