By Sanu Akingbola

The much anticipated World Cup is drawing closer no doubt, talk about ticket sales, its more like the ‘real deal’.

Within the first four hours of the opening of the last sales phase, 126,837 tickets were requested by football fans from around the world for the 2014 FIFA World Cup™ via FIFA.com – 80,496 from Brazilian national (63.4%) and 46,341 from international football fans. The top ten nationalities, by tickets successfully allocated, were: Brazil, USA, Colombia, Argentina, Germany, Mexico, France, England, Chile and Australia. Tickets are still available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Only credit and Visa debit cards will be accepted in this phase – there is no option to pay with a Boleto. Visa is the preferred payment method of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. It is important to ensure that ticket buyers have enough funds for their respective payment method.

Ticket transfers & resales
Fans can already transfer or submit tickets for re-sale for guests directly from their FIFA.com ticketing accounts. The requests can be made until the end of the day (19:00 Brasília time) three full days prior to the start of the relevant match. Those who have purchased Venue Series Tickets (“VSTs”) or Team Specific Ticket Series (“TSTs”) may only submit the entire VSTs or TSTs series for a ticket transfer (and not any parts thereof). There is no guarantee that returned tickets will be resold.

If a ticket purchaser wants to transfer a discounted ticket to a different guest, he/she may only do so to people eligible for the same concession type (i.e elderly, students or Bolsa Família beneficiaries). The main applicant ticket cannot be transferred. In case a ticket has been successfully re-sold, the buyer will receive a refund based on the face value price paid, less a resale handling fee of 10%. There are no fees applicable to guest transfers. For additional information, please refer to the transfer and resale policy available on FIFA.com.

© Sport Cracker Media