MOSCOW, March 13. /TASS/. The second period of the Phase 2 of ticket sales for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, which kicks off in 11 cities across Russia this summer, was launched on Tuesday at 12:00 Moscow time (9:00 am GMT).
The second period of Phase 2 dubbed as the "First-come, first served" opened on March 13 to provide sales services until its closure on April 3, with all tickets available for purchase throughout this period strictly on the official FIFA website.
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The Phase 2 of ticket sales for the quadrennial world football championship was divided into two periods, just like during the preceding Phase 1.
The FIFA announced in its statement on Monday that an aggregate sum of 1,303,616 tickets had been already allocated after both periods of Phase 1 and the first period of Phase 2. Given the number of requests was more than the number of available tickets, they had been allocated by a random selection draw process.
"Overall, the number of tickets allocated to international customers during the second random selection sales window accounts for 65%," according to FIFA’s statement.
Phase 3, dubbed as the "Last Minute Sales," will run from April 18 up until the final match day of the competition and the remaining tickets will be available for purchase on a first-come first-serve basis.
The first period of the Phase 2 of ticket sales was launched on December 5, 2017 and closed on January 31, 2018. December 5 was also the date for the resumption of ticket sales in the Category 4, which was especially introduced by FIFA for this upcoming world football championship and is reserved exclusively for Russian residents.
Ticket prices for FIFA Confederations and World Cup tournaments are usually divided into three categories and the global football organization visas the price for each category. A special fourth category, which is the cheapest compared to the others, was especially introduced by FIFA in July 2016 and was reserved only for residents of the hosting country.
Fan-IDs for ticket holders
Russia came up for this FIFA World Cup with an innovation, which is the so-called Fan-ID and it is required for all ticketholders. This innovation was successfully tested during the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup in Russia and earned high marks from the world’s governing football body.
The Fan-ID plays an important security role during the major football tournament in Russia as it grants admittance to the stadiums and also serves as visa for foreign visitors to enter the country.
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A Fan-ID holder is allowed to enter the country without having a Russian visa and stay for the duration of the global football tournament. Fan-IDs are obligatory, in addition to purchased tickets, in order to attend matches of the 2018 World Cup tournament in Russia. They were available free of charge at designated areas located in all hosting cities across Russia as well as via e-mails and postal services during the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup.
Last October, the Russian Ministry of Communications and Mass Media announced the launch of a registration process for obtaining new Fan-IDs required for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Russia selected 11 host cities to be the venues for the matches of the 2018 World Cup and they are Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan, Saransk, Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Samara.
The matches of the 2018 World Cup will be held between June 14 and July 15 at 12 stadiums located in the 11 mentioned above cities across Russia. Two of the stadiums are located in the Russian capital.