‘Come watch the matches’: Worried about lack of spectators at the Women’s World Cup in New Zealand
Record tickets but concerns about sales in New Zealand. 1.375 million tickets were sold for the Women’s World Cup, organized in Oceania, to welcome the FIFA president on Wednesday, while he implored New Zealanders to “seize the opportunity”.
“It’s not too late, we need you, come and watch the matches,” Gianni Infantino began Wednesday in Auckland to New Zealand reporters, during the World Cup launch press conference (July 20-August 20). “We still have tickets available for most matches, but don’t wait until the last minute,” said Fatma Samoura, FIFA’s general secretary.
The kick-off for the World Cup will take place on Thursday with the New Zealand/Norway match in Auckland, the same day Australia will play Ireland in Sydney in front of a packed crowd, in front of 80,000 spectators. By contrast, Mr. Ferns’ opener against Norway at Auckland’s Eden Park is yet to run out. Tickets were still available Wednesday for this match.
New Zealand accounts for less than a quarter of tickets sold
New Zealand will host 29 matches in total, including all of the two-time champions USA’s pool matches. But in recent days, Jane Patterson, the head of World Cup operations in New Zealand, said the total number of tickets sold for matches in the country was just over 320,000, less than a quarter of the total announced by FIFA on Wednesday.
“We know that New Zealanders are late ticket buyers,” Fatima Samoura commented on Wednesday. “The only message I want to send here is to seize the moment and be proud of what you’ve been able to achieve here in New Zealand and Australia,” Gianni Infantino told reporters.
“This is a moment to seize for all New Zealand football fans. It is indeed the most watched women’s sporting event,” Fatima Samoura continued. “But I want to tell New Zealand fans that the spectacle they will see, not just their national team, will be unique. When they go to watch a match for the first time, they will see that it’s great,” Gianni Infantino also said.
“This is an opportunity for this country to not only be a rugby country, but to reawaken its love of football,” New Zealand’s Czech coach told a news conference on Wednesday. Jitka Klimkova, before the match against Norway. For her part, Captain Ali Riley stressed that the World Cup is “an opportunity for sports culture to inspire youth.”
For her press conference opening the Women’s World Cup, the FIFA leader measured a lot more than she did eight months ago in Qatar in December for the men’s event. “Today I feel that I am Qatari, Arab, African, gay, gay, disabled and migrant worker,” he said in Doha, in a speech that drew much comment. In Auckland, he said simply: “I feel tired because I just landed, but I am very happy.”
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