Russia 2018: Ticket Thread (sales at face-value ONLY)

I've found the first phase of the WC to be pretty easy to get tickets for group-stage matches as well as round-of-16. For quarterfinals I've had roughly a 50% success rate and never had any luck for semifinal or final tickets, naturally. But overall, it has been a lot easier getting WC tickets than it was for Euro 2008 or Euro 2012 (I didn't apply for Euro 2016).

 

Yes. Fan ID will be your VISA-LESS access to Russia.

If you don't have the Fan ID, you can't enter Russia without visa, get free transportation (buses, trains etc) or get into stadiums.

 

You can get a visa, then get the Fan ID when you arrive.

 

My understanding is you do not get a visa at all if you get tickets, you apply for the Fan ID prior to entry into Russia

 

You need a Fan ID to enter the stadium but you can apply for it after arriving. You need a visa to enter the country without the Fan ID.

 

Anyone know the exact date tickets go on sale? Will the first phase be lottery or first come first serve?

 

I have a concern with the Fan ID. It appears that fans entering the matches will need to show their Fan ID. FIFA has the dire warning on "Unauthorised Ticket Sales", just as they had it for the last WC in Brazil. From the FIFA web site:

Ticket Holders may not sell, offer for sale, resell, offer at auctions, donate, act as a commercial agent for another party or otherwise transfer a Ticket in any way without the specific prior written consent of FIFA.

"The unauthorised transfer, resale or further use of Tickets is a violation of the General Terms and Conditions for the Use of Tickets. In such case, Tickets will be automatically cancelled by FIFA. As a consequence FIFA may:
a) refuse to deliver the Ticket;
b) refuse entry into the Stadium;
c) eject the Ticket Holder from the Stadium;
d) seize the Ticket; etc."​

In Brazil, there were massive resales of tickets. The secondary market was booming. I have no idea on statistics, but I suspect that for any given match a large percentage of attendees were not the original ticket buyers. Also, I didn't hear of any instances of people getting tuned away at matches, as there was no checking of IDs at entry. A lot of us worried about it, but nothing happened.

I wonder if with the Fan ID if this will be done. My guess is 'no', it would result in chaos. The entry lines were long enough in Brazil, they'll probably be worse in Russia as I expect security to be even tighter. If they also do an ID check, and refuse entry to fans, we'll need to get in line 2 hours before kickoff.

 

Friends who are in Russia for the Confederations Cup have said that only the fan ID was checked. The name on the ticket was not checked.

 

thanks, good data point. I think that enforcing this at the entry gates would create huge problems, so I think it'll be the same for the actual WC.

Plus, it's been reported in the past that the FIFA officials themselves sell a lot of the tickets they get access to, so it would cut off a major revenue stream for them!

 

well, ticketing is one of the best parts of the world cup, that way world cup begins long before kickoff and it simply makes fun.
we've been to many world cups, first it was easy, then it was confusing, and recent cups were great. if you know how FIFA ticketing works then you basically get all the tickets you need. only final is bit harder, but even that is managable. and if you do not know it, it runs for a year, there is enough time to learn it during the process and in the worst case, your're ready for the next one

EDIT: this will be the first world cup since ages we are staying home, but after so many years, you can't skip ticketing just like that, I am sure many from my group will try to get someting , probably openning or final and then they when they do, they will get weak

 

https://themoscowtimes.com/news/fifa-world-cup-2018-tickets-to-go-on-sale-in-december-58321

 

Not great news at all. Not sure why on earth FIFA and the Russian organising committee would think waiting till the draw is done to start the ticketing process.

 

And on that same page of the Moscow times some good news: "Starting July 4, Russian retailers can now accept drivers licenses and Fan IDs, an identification document for spectators at the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup or the 2018 World Cup, from individuals who wish to purchase alcohol, the Kommersant newspaper.

 

Well... yeah, but way more importantly than that there will be matches with very high demand that we will have very little chance of getting tickets for unless we're willing to pay through the nose.
That was the whole fun part of buying tickets before the draw - the possibility of landing a big match. Of course you could get Greece v Japan but the mere hope that the average fan paying face value for tickets could get something big made it all worth it.

 

I dont believe this. Maybe the article is mistaken? The 2nd phase is usually after the draw. Cant believe they wont do a random draw for the exact reason above. Low demand matches.

 

I think for me personally, I'm happy with this news. My plan now is to attend all 3 USA Group Stage matches (of course assuming the US qualifies), and buying tickets before the draw complicates that. I probably would have done some broad planning where I decided on my base cities (Moscow and St. Petersburg) and then tried for a couple of games there. probably targeting some games involving Pot-1 (seeded) teams. That's what we did in Brazil, because we knew we wanted to go to Salvador so we chose an E1 game, which turned out to be Switzerland (disappointment) when the draw happened.

Now, I'll know exactly when and where the US is playing and can more or less plan out the whole trip before I try for any specific match tickets. As someone who likes planning everything out and not just winging it, I like that.

I agree with this. I don't think it'll affect matches in St. Petersburg and Moscow much as many people will base themselves in those cities. But matches played in the more remote cities with the less popular teams will be affected. The game I remembered from 2014 was Greece-Ivory Coast in Fortaleza. You could get a ticket to that one for almost nothing.

But, it's usually a combination of a less popular team and a small/remote city. The matches in the big cities will sell out (or come close) regardless. So I don't know how many people would shoot for tickets in those smaller cities even if we had a pre-draw sale.

 

If you look at St Pete and Moscow group matches, most have a seeded team or Russia in them. So yes, those wont be affected. The smaller cities will suffer.

 

@samatwing, thanks for pointing that out; I never noticed that before. There are 8 group Stage matches played in the 2 Moscow stadiums (4 in each). All 8 matches (100%) feature a Pot-1 seeded team (or Russia). So all 8 of these teams get to play at least one match in Moscow. The demand for those 8 matches will be even higher as the seeded teams tend to be the more popular teams and obviously demand for Russia matches will be through the roof.

Of the 4 matches in St. Petersburg, 2 of the 4 feature seeded teams and one has Russia. The only one that doesn't is the first one on Day-2 of the tournament that has B3 v B4. So demand for those will be very high too. I understand that not all seeded teams are super popular (example Switzerland in 2014), but they certainly tend to be more popular.

So it looks like getting tickets for the Moscow and St. Petersburg games will be even harder than I thought as demand will be very strong. And conversely, as you guys have been saying, concentrating so many seeded teams in the 2 big cities means less matches with seeded teams in the smaller cities, so even less demand.

looking at that, there are 24 Group Stage matches involving seeded teams (and Russia), so there are 13 games left after the 11 in the 2 big cities. Both Kazan and Sochi also get 3 of their 4 games with seeded teams (or Russia). So that means the other 7 host cities get one seeded team each. The imbalance is worse than I thought.

 

I sincerely hope this article is wrong.

 

Correct. I honestly was just hoping to win tix to a random game. I was gonna apply to the random lottery and hope to get a game in Moscow or St Pete. Thought I would have a better chance with not as many people applying blindly. Now, Id imagine itll be harder to get tickets after the draw.

Honestly, may have a better chance at round of 16 now.

 

It would seem very odd to change things so dramatically. Even odder that the FIFA WC website never has any movement, news or anything on it. Surely if the first ticket phase starts after the draw then people only get to hear the results at the end of January which really cramps up the the rest of the phases. As has been mentioned the reason for the earlier phases was to get the less popular games popular and the fact the the Russian government announced this makes one wonder if FIFA are making any decisions at all.