2023-07-19 09:15:03
A ticket record but concerns for sales in New Zealand. 1.375 million tickets have been sold for the Women’s World Cup, organized in Oceania, greeted the president of Fifa on Wednesday, while appealing to New Zealanders to “seize the moment”.
“It’s not too late, we need you, come and see the matches”, launched Wednesday in Auckland Gianni Infantino to New Zealand journalists, during the press conference for the launch of the World Cup (July 20-August 20). ). “We still have tickets available for most matches, but don’t wait until the last minute,” said Fatma Samoura, secretary general of the international federation.
The kick-off of the World Cup will be given on Thursday with the New Zealand / Norway match in Auckland, the same day that Australia will play against Ireland in Sydney to a sold-out crowd, in front of 80,000 spectators. By contrast, the Ferns’ opener against Norway at Eden Park in Auckland has yet to sell 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 pool matches for the two-time defending champions USA. But in recent days, Jane Patterson, 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 quarter of the total announced Wednesday by Fifa.
“We know that the Kiwis are late ticket buyers,” commented Fatma Samoura on Wednesday. “The only message I want to send here is to seize the moment, to be proud of what you have been able to achieve here, in New Zealand, in Australia,” Gianni Infantino told reporters.
“This is a moment to be seized for all football fans in New Zealand. It is already the most watched women’s sporting event,” continued Fatma Samoura. “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 see a match for the first time, they will see that it is fantastic,” also said Gianni Infantino.
“This is an opportunity for this country to not just be a country of rugby, but to reawaken its love for football,” New Zealand coach, the Czech, told a press conference on Wednesday. Jitka Klimkova, before the game against Norway. For her part, captain Ali Riley assured that the World Cup was “an opportunity for sports culture, to inspire young people”.
For her press conference opening the Women’s World Cup, the FIFA leader was much more measured than eight months earlier in Qatar in December for the men’s event. “Today, I feel Qatari, Arab, African, gay, homosexual, disabled, migrant worker,” he said in Doha in a highly commented speech. In Auckland, he simply said: “I feel tired as I just landed, but very happy. »
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