South Korea and Czechia contested the second match of the World Cup in front of hundreds of empty seats on Thursday night, coming as a disaster for FIFA on the opening day of the tournament.
Just weeks after the governing body claimed that its ticketing site had received an unprecedented 500 million booking requests, Guadalajara Stadium appeared nowhere near full throughout its opening match, which got underway at 8pm in Mexico.
The announced attendance was 44,985 at the 45,664-capacity venue, despite patches of empty seats being spotted all over, particularly in VIP sections and areas opposite the main TV camera.
FIFA was desperate to avoid that visual heading into this summer’s soccer festival, having drastically cut ticket prices for all 104 matches in a bid to entice more supporters to the US, Canada and Mexico, despite boasting about the huge demand.
‘You’ve heard, there were many discussions about the ticketing of the World Cup,’ FIFA President Gianni Infantino said in April. ‘We had 500 million ticket requests — 500 million ticket requests. In the last two World Cups together, we had 50 million ticket requests. Here, 500 million.’
However, thousands of tickets still remain available on its official resale portals, including for the United States’ opening match against Paraguay on Friday in Los Angeles.
South Korea and Czechia played the World Cup’s second match in front of many empty seats
The two nations completed the tournament’s opening day at Mexico’s Guadalajara Stadium
South Korea eventually got the better of Czechia on the night, fighting back from a goal down to win 2-1.
The opening day of the World Cup proved a chaotic one for FIFA, with violent protests erupting outside the Mexico City Stadium before the opening match between Mexico and South Africa.
What was supposed to be a global celebration turned into a chaotic political nightmare, threatening to completely overshadow the tournament’s curtain-raiser.
While Mexico secured a 2-0 victory over South Africa , thousands of protesters hit the capital to voice rage over missing citizens and poor labor conditions.
The massive demonstrations were fueled by a coalition of multiple unions and activist groups marching to draw global eyes to the country’s severe domestic issues.
The most prominent groups mobilizing include searching mothers’ collectives, the CNTE teachers’ union, federal judiciary workers and various transport organizations. In total, it was reported that eight simultaneous protests took place on Thursday.
Human rights groups have thrown a spotlight on the country’s staggering missing-persons epidemic, which continues to plague tens of thousands of families.
According to Mexico’s National Registry, there are currently 134,460 recorded missing persons across the nation, a figure that continues to rise rapidly.
