As England prepares to "board the plane to Russia," the number of fans following the team "has nosedived," with English World Cup ticket sales "sluggish" compared to other nations and twice as many sold to fans of Colombia, according to Jamie Johnson of the London TELEGRAPH. Heightened political tensions between the U.K. and Russia, fears of racism and homophobia and the high cost of travel to the World Cup appear to have "put some fans off," with just 32,362 tickets being sold to England supporters. This number puts England 10th on the list of countries that have purchased tickets with 2,403,116 sold globally. Russian fans have bought "nearly half of them," with 871,797 -- almost 10 times as many as second place U.S. with 88,825. Ahead of England is Australia (36,359 tickets sold), Peru (43,583 tickets sold) and Colombia (65,234). Sales have been "slow across the board" and more than 100,000 tickets, which were previously reserved for other FIFA constituent groups, were made available on the FIFA website on a first-come, first-served basis on Friday (TELEGRAPH, 6/12).
DIE MANNSCHAFT: In London, Simon Calder reported Germany is "likely to be the best-supported foreign team" at Russia 2018, "judging from flight bookings." Data from global travel firm Travelport revealed the number of passengers booked to fly to Russia between Thursday and July 15. The "strongest absolute growth in flight bookings" is from Germany, with 16,213 more travelers booked than in the corresponding period last year. Two-thirds more Americans will fly to Russia, representing 13,654 travelers. More tickets have been bought by U.S. fans than any other foreign nation, even though the country failed to qualify (INDEPENDENT, 6/12).
