Over 23,000 tickets sold for Russia-Iran friendly football match in Kazan

KAZAN, October 9. /TASS/. Over 23,000 tickets have been already sold for a friendly football match between the national teams of Russia and Iran, which is due to kick off on Tuesday night in Russia’s Kazan, Igor Vladimirov, a spokesman for the Russian Football Union (RFU), told TASS on Monday. Tickets for the match are available for purchase at several locations across Kazan, which is the capital of the republic of Tatarstan, as well as via Internet with the price per one ticket ranging between 900 and 1,200 rubles ($15-21). Tatarstan Sports Minister Vladimir Leonov said that part of the tickets for the football match at the 45,000-seat capacity Kazan Arena has been distributed on the free-of-charge basis. "We are expecting an attendance of some 25,000 spectators," Leonov said. "It is true that part of the tickets has been distributed for free and there is nothing strange about this." "This is part of our standard tickets program as we seek attracting as much people as possible to the stadium. There is no certain quote (for free tickets)," he said. Asked about an expected amount of Iranian football fans at the friendly football match, Leonov said, "It is hard to say how many Iranian football fans will be at the match, but considering the fact that we have (in Kazan) this country’s community and the Consulate General’s office, we should expect about 100-200 people." National teams around the globe are currently in the qualifying stage, battling for a place in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, while Russia as the host nation has been already guaranteed a berth in the world’s main quadrennial football event. Therefore, the Russian national team is playing friendly football matches in the run-up to the much anticipated 2018 FIFA World Cup. The friendly match against Iran will be second for Russia in four days as the national team, led by Head Coach Stanislav Cherchesov, played another friendly on Saturday night in Moscow against South Korea. The match at the VEB-Arena in the Russian capital on October 7 ended 4-2 in favor of the hosting team. After successfully hosting the FIFA Confederations Cup this summer, Russia is now in full-swing preparations to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The country selected 11 host cities to be the venues for the matches of the 2018 World Cup and they are Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan, Saransk, Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Samara. The matches of the 2018 World Cup will be held between June 14 and July 15 at 12 stadiums located in the 11 mentioned above cities across Russia. Two of the stadiums are located in the Russian capital. Read more