World Cup ticket sales hit 2.3 million

Brasilia, Feb 22: Fans have already purchased 2.3 million tickets for this year's World Cup following this week's second lottery-style sales phase, world soccer governing body FIFA said Friday.

Almost 10 million requests have been made by fans from 228 countries and regions since sales began in August last year.

Supporters in Brazil have acquired the most tickets with 906,000, followed by the US(125,000), Colombia (60,000), Germany (56,000) and Argentina (54,000), reported Xinhua.

"We have a very high demand for tickets," FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke said at a press conference. "There's a very high demand from overseas fans."

Seven of the tournament's 64 matches are already sold out: the final, England-Italy, US-Portugal, quarterfinals in Porto Alegre and Sao Paulo and the semifinal in Belo Horizonte.

An additional 159,000 tickets will be made available on a first-come-first-served basis March 12.