Doha: With the FIFA World Cup 2022 ahead, the football body has announced to have sold as many as 500,000 tickets. In an official statament on Thursday, it said- So far 2.45 million tickets have been sold while 500,000 tickets were bought in a first-come, first-served phase of sales that closed this week.

About 2 million tickets were placed on general sale and 1 million were allocated for FIFA stakeholders such as member federations, sponsors, and broadcasters, plus hospitality programs.

For fans outside the country, the football body has set the cheapest price at SR 250. As per the statistics observed in Phase 1 of ticket sales- fans majorly belonged to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Currently, the sale has been paused with FIFA promising an update in late September about the last round of sales.

The World Cup begins a day earlier than originally scheduled with the opening ceremony taking place before the host nation kick off the tournament on Sunday, Nov. 20 against Ecuador.

It will be the first World Cup staged in the Middle East and has been pushed back to later in the year than its typical June-July schedule to avoid the region’s punishing summer heat.