FIFA World Cup tickets less expensive than IPL

Tickets for a group game of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar later this year will cost less than the price of catching live IPL action at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium. While a fan will be paying 250 Qatari Rial (about Rs 5,211 in Indian currency) for a Spain vs Germany league game, the price of mid-level tickets for an IPL match at the Wankhede is almost double that.
Also, the cheapest ticket for the biggest game of the world’s most popular sport, the football World Cup final, will cost Rs 45,828. That’s just Rs 10,000 more than the most expensive IPL match tickets. Affordable tickets and the never-seen-before geographical proximity to the World Cup host country has prompted unprecedented Indian interest in ticket sales that began last week.
In the first round of sales, ticket applications from India were seventh-most among countries. John Parker from BH Hospitality, official FIFA partners, explains: “India provides a goldmine of absolutely first-class football supporters. We all know about the love for cricket in India but I think the world is starting to wake up to its love for football as well.”
“If I was three hours away from the biggest festival of football… the chance of you being that close to the World Cup without hosting it is almost going to be impossible.” The announcement of the draw saw massive online logjams as the second round of random selection for ticket sales got underway.

Fans complained of getting stuck in an online queue for hours before the FIFA portal allowed them to make ticket applications. The ticket sales started on April 5 and will continue till April 28. FIFA has said that the result of the random selection draw will be out May 31 and applications will be decided the lottery system.
Tickets for the initial matches, barring the opener, have not been this cheap since the 2006 World Cup in Germany. Qatar has gone one step further for the locals, charging only 40 QAR (Rs 834) for group-stage tickets – the lowest a host nation has charged for home fans since the 1986 World Cup in Mexico.
But just as the group-stage tickets have got cheaper, tickets for the final have gotten progressively expensive. In Russia, the costliest ticket was for $1100 (Rs 83,509) while in Qatar, the final, set to be held at the Lusail Stadium, will cost $1607 (QAR 5850/INR 1,22,032). In some cases, the increase in prices from the Russia World Cup has been as much as 50 per cent.
How to apply for tickets:
* Open an account with fifa.com using an email account, a valid passport and an internationally accepted credit or debit card.* Once logged in, one can apply for any ticket from the opener to the final.* There are four different types of tickets fans can purchase – individual matches, team-specific, stadium-specific and accessibility tickets.* A login will create a Fan ID – which is usually the main marker to enter stadium premises in and around Qatar. One ID can apply for up to six tickets per match and can stretch to a maximum of 60 tickets across the World Cup.* The application for tickets can be edited or removed until April 28* Payments for tickets will only have to be made after May 31 if an application is successful.

Box
Rs 5211 – Price of the cheapest 2022 FIFA World Cup group-stage match ticket.
Rs 1,21,976 – Cost of the most expensive World Cup final ticket.
30,00,000 – Total tickets available. Two million for fans, a million for FIFA and its partners.