A top FIFA official confirmed to AFP on Tuesday that every seat in the stadium would be taken for Australia’s first match of the Women’s World Cup, which will take place in one month.
According to Dave Beeche, the chief executive officer of the Women’s World Cup, all tickets for the Matildas’ match against Ireland on July 20 at Sydney’s Stadium Australia, which has a capacity of around 80,000 people, have been sold.
He said that at this time there is nothing that can be done.
Beeche also anticipates a sellout crowd in Auckland on the same day, which is when tournament co-hosts New Zealand, widely known as the “Football Ferns,” will play their first game of the tournament against Norway.
He claimed that the double-header that was going to be played on both sides of the Tasman Sea was going to be “a massive day for women’s football.”
The tournament director said that there are just a “few thousand” tickets remaining for New Zealand’s first game at Eden Park, which will have a capacity of just under 40,000 people. The game will take place fewer than 25 days from now.
Beeche said “Yes, definitely” when asked if the Auckland stadium would be sold out for the opener, amid worries over the tournament’s poor ticket sales in New Zealand. Beeche was asked whether the stadium in Auckland would be sold out for the first match.
The International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA) has reported that around 1.1 million tickets have been sold for the 64 matches that will take place in Australia and New Zealand.
The president of women’s football at FIFA, Sarai Bareman, has expressed worry about the low number of ticket sales for the World Cup in New Zealand, where the co-hosts are fighting for form.
The Football Ferns are coming into the tournament on a losing record of ten matches, but they still have one opportunity to pick up a victory before the tournament begins on July 10 when they host their last friendly encounter against Vietnam.
Beeche said that thus far 270,000 tickets had been sold in New Zealand, while 830,000 tickets had been sold in Australia.
These disparate statistics are a reflection of the population sizes of Australia and New Zealand, he asserted, with Australia having a population of 26 million and New Zealand having a population of five million.
“New Zealand is doing pretty well,” he said, “when you look at the Matildas being a high-ranked team and the Football Ferns’ run of form.” “When you look at the Matildas being a high-ranked team and the Football Ferns’ run of form,” he continued.