FIFA U-17 World Cup 2017: Over a lakh takers for tickets to relocated Brazil-England semi-final in Kolkata

Kolkata: Demand for tickets for the shifted Brazil-England U-17 World Cup semi-final skyrocketed with an online queue of more than a lakh registered within an hour after tickets for the Brazil-England match were thrown open at the official FIFA site. “You are in an online queue for the FIFA U-17 World Cup India 2017 tickets. Once it is your turn, you will have 10 minutes to enter the website,” the message on the website read quoting a serial number 1,21,911 with 84,735 users still ahead within an hour after it went live. [caption id=“attachment_4168959” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Brazil U-17 players celebrate their win over Germany in the quarter-finals of the FIFA U-17 World Cup. Getty Images[/caption] It was a win-win situation for football-loving Kolkata fans as FIFA announced the shift in venue from Guwahati with less than 48 hours before the match in an unprecedented development. A known Brazil bastion, Kolkata turned up in record numbers to swell the Salt Lake Stadium to support the yellow brigade in their 2-1 quarter-final win on Sunday. With Kolkata set to host the summit clash on 28 October, the crowd now have a chance to witness the Samba magic again as the response is evident from the huge ticket craze. “The sort of craze we are seeing, it seems selling the tickets would not pose any problem. We are more concerned with giving a large number of options to the fans to redeem the tickets,” FIFA Local Organising Committee project director Joy Bhattacharjya said. The FIFA has put a flat rate of tickets at Rs 100 giving fans in Guwahati the priority as about 18,000 were sold there. Nagpur-based ardent sports fan Om Mundhra, who was to reach Guwahati on Tuesday, now has to cancel his flight tickets and alter his travel plans. “Cancelling the flight tickets is not priority but I must get the Kolkata tickets now. I’ve booked the tickets months in advance. Till now I’m in queue. But I’m looking forward to watch both the semi-finals and final in Kolkata now,” he said.