Organisers of this year’s Fifa Club World Cup have urged football fans to buy their tickets as soon as possible after early sales far exceeded expectations.
Tickets for the tournament, which takes place in the Emirates from December 6-16, have been available since the beginning of this month, first open only to Visa cardholders and then to the general public, from June 19.
With Spanish giants Real Madrid having confirmed their spot at the seven-team event by winning the Uefa Champions League on June 3, local organisers said the initial rush for tickets has been significantly greater than in 2009 and 2010, when Abu Dhabi last hosted the Club World Cup. Tickets start at Dh20.
“Until this point, the ticket sales have been perfect,” Aref Al Awani, tournament director of the Local Organising Committee (LOC), said yesterday as the 2017 tournament's official mascot was launched. “For example, in 2010 the pre-sale was less than 1,000 tickets, but now we’ve sold up to 10,000. We are talking about a massive difference.
“Also, the total sales for Category 3 tickets are at almost 70 per cent, which is an impressive number, and within the next two weeks we will release a report so people can know what’s still available. But I advise everybody to choose their tickets very soon because they are going so quickly.
“As a pre-sale, 10,000 did exceed greatly our expectations. So that’s why we feel we have to put more effort into satisfying the needs and expectations of each fan coming to the matches.”
The UAE will host the tournament this December for a third time, with eight matches played across two stadiums: the capital’s Zayed Sports City and the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium in Al Ain.
At present, Madrid, Mexico’s Pachuca and New Zealand’s Auckland City are confirmed, along with Arabian Gulf League champions Al Jazira, who provisionally fill the slot given to the host country. However, should Al Ain win the Asian Champions League - the Garden City club contest the quarter-finals later this summer - they will then take Jazira’s place.
With defending champions Madrid entering only at the semi-final stage, there is some concern that earlier matches may not be able to attract capacity attendances - a problem that affected the tournaments in 2009 and 2010. Yet Al Awani said the LOC are confident this year's event will not encounter the same issue.
“This time, on the guidance of Major General Mohammed Khalfan Al Romaithi, chairman of the Higher LOC, we intended to initiate the campaign early, as you can see," Al Awani said. "We started having the roadshow one month ago and making the tickets available early. From our side, we’ve done our homework, we’ve prepared the ticketing in a very good way so it’s an easy process. I’m sure that most of the fans by maybe October will have their ticket. We’re hoping to have full houses for every matches.
"The Club World Cup is for everybody, not only the UAE but the region and the whole world to celebrate it.”
jmcauley@thenational.ae
Jewel of the Expo 2020
252 projectors installed on Al Wasl dome
13.6km of steel used in the structure that makes it equal in length to 16 Burj Khalifas
550 tonnes of moulded steel were raised last year to cap the dome
724,000 cubic metres is the space it encloses
Stands taller than the leaning tower of Pisa
Steel trellis dome is one of the largest single structures on site
The size of 16 tennis courts and weighs as much as 500 elephants
Al Wasl means connection in Arabic
World’s largest 360-degree projection surface
On the menu
First course
▶ Emirati sea bass tartare Yuzu and labneh mayo, avocado, green herbs, fermented tomato water
▶ The Tale of the Oyster Oyster tartare, Bahraini gum berry pickle
Second course
▶ Local mackerel Sourdough crouton, baharat oil, red radish, zaatar mayo
▶ One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Quail, smoked freekeh, cinnamon cocoa
Third course
▶ Bahraini bouillabaisse Venus clams, local prawns, fishfarm seabream, farro
▶ Lamb 2 ways Braised lamb, crispy lamb chop, bulgur, physalis
Dessert
▶ Lumi Black lemon ice cream, pistachio, pomegranate
▶ Black chocolate bar Dark chocolate, dates, caramel, camel milk ice cream
THE CLOWN OF GAZA
Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah
Starring: Alaa Meqdad
Rating: 4/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Visit Abu Dhabi culinary team's top Emirati restaurants in Abu Dhabi
Yadoo’s House Restaurant & Cafe
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Golden Dallah
For the cappuccino, luqaimat and aseeda.
Al Mrzab Restaurant
For the shrimp murabian and Kuwaiti options including Kuwaiti machboos with kebab and spicy sauce.
Al Derwaza
For the fish hubul, regag bread, biryani and special seafood soup.
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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