700,000 tickets to be sold for 2017 Confederations Cup in Russia

Around 700,000 tickets are expected to be sold for the matches of the 2017 Confederations Cup football tournament, to be held in Russia later this year, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko has informed President Vladimir Putin.

Speaking at a Cabinet meeting with the Russian President Putin, Mutko said that Russia began issuing the fan-IDs for matches of the Confederations Cup on Wednesday, reports Tass.

Official ceremonies were held simultaneously in all four cities selected to host the tournament's matches, namely Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan and Sochi. Mutko was attending the ceremony in the Russian capital.

"We believe that some 700,000 tickets will be sold for the Confederations Cup, since today we already have over 100,000 requests, while about 10,000 people are already receiving their fan-IDs," Mutko, also the president of the Russian Football Union (RFU), said.

"On the whole, we are at the very good level of preparations for the tournament," Mutko said, adding that the first match of the Confederations Cup kicks off on June 17 in St. Petersburg.

The tournament will begin with a match between Russia and New Zealand.

The fan-ID will play an important role in the provision of security during the 2017 Confederations Cup and the 2018 World Cup as they would be granting admittance to the stadiums and would also serve as visas for foreign visitors.

A holder of the fan-ID will be allowed to enter the country without having a Russian visa and stay for the duration of the global football tournament as well as for the period of 10 days before and after the championship.

In order to clear the country's border a holder of the fan-ID would also have to produce an identification document, a ticket for a match or a document verifying the purchase of a ticket.

--IANS

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