FIFA is "facing the embarrassing prospect of a string of World Cup matches being played out in front of thousands of empty seats," according to Ben Rumsby of the London TELEGRAPH. As the world governing body "launched an investigation" into thousands of no-shows at Friday's game between Egypt and Uruguay, eight of the tournament’s remaining 12 opening group fixtures had reportedly not sold out, including England’s match against Tunisia on Monday. FIFA is "looking into why there were so many empty seats" for the Egypt-Uruguay match at the Ekaterinburg Arena, "a sight which sparked criticism on social media" (TELEGRAPH, 6/15). In London, Martyn Ziegler reported all but 783 tickets for the 33,061-capacity stadium in Yekaterinburg were sold "but there were about six thousand empty seats" at the Egypt-Uruguay match. The prospect of more matches with empty seats "could prove embarrassing" for the tournament organizers and to FIFA. One England supporter in Moscow said that he had a ticket for the match against Tunisia but the £500 ($664) cost of the internal flight meant he was "not going to travel to Volgograd and would rather attend other group games in Moscow instead." There were also empty seats in St. Petersburg for Iran vs. Morocco, where tickets "remained unsold in all seating categories" until kickoff, and unsold tickets a couple of hours before kickoff in the most expensive category, with seats costing £158 ($210) each, for Portugal vs. Spain in Sochi. All the matches in the two venues in Moscow, the Luzhniki Stadium and Spartak Moscow's stadium, have sold out (LONDON TIMES, 6/16).
SMALL CONTINGENT: REUTERS' Ulmer & Schomberg reported only a "small contingent of diehard English fans" made the journey to see the start of their team's World Cup campaign in Russia, with many others "put off by fears of violence and a diplomatic crisis between London and Moscow." No more than 2,500 England supporters were expected to be in Volgograd for Monday's game against Tunisia, a spokesperson for the British embassy in Russia said, a "far cry from much bigger turnouts in the group stages of previous tournaments." Of the FA's ticket allocations for England's three group matches, "only the game against Belgium in Kaliningrad," the smallest of the three venues, is sold out, Football Supporters' Federation CEO Kevin Miles said. While the numbers in Russia "could be similar" to the England supporters who attended the two most recent World Cups in Brazil and South Africa, "those tournaments took place in distant continents." With England games spread between Volgograd, Nizhny Novgorod and Kaliningrad, fans could spend some £5,000 ($6,640) to watch the group fixtures, according to research carried out by Virgin Media and the FSF (REUTERS, 6/17).
