By Nick Butler

There was a high uptake from Brazilian fans keen to see a first victory since 2002 on home soil ©AFP/Getty ImagesDecember 11 - More than 1.1 million tickets were requested within the first 24 hours of the latest phase of online ticket sales opening for the FIFA World Cup to be held next year in Brazil, it has been revealed.


Unsurprisingly, 86 per cent of tickets were requested by fans from the host country, with high levels also coming from supporters from the United Stats with 38,000 and Argentina (30,659 as well as from Chile, Colombia and Mexico.

Lower numbers of sales have come from Europe at this stage, with around six thousand requests each coming from Germany, the UK and France.

Furthermore, 29,913 requests have been received to date for the participating member association (PMA) ticket category, sales of which also started on Sunday (December 8) but will remain open until February.

FIFA have said that a total of about 3.3 million tickets will be sold for the tournament.

About 900,000 tickets were sold in the first stage of ticket sales earlier this year, before another 230,000 tickets were sold in the second phase in just seven hours.

Ticket sales have been high despite concerns over incomplete venues and political protests in 2013 ©AFP/Getty ImagesTicket sales have been high despite concerns over incomplete venues and political protests in 2013 ©AFP/Getty Images





The latest phase is the first opportunity to request tickets since the draw for the World Cup group stage was made last week.

During the current sales window, all fans have an equal chance to be successful, regardless of the date of the ticket request, as all requests will be amalgamated at the end of the phase and processed together, FIFA have explained.

In the event that the number of requests received per product and category exceeds the number of tickets available, a lottery will be held to determine the successful applicants.

FIFA have also reserved 16 per cent of the tickets for every match for fans from both teams, including tickets for Brazilian and Croatian fans for the opening match at Arena Corinthians in São Paulo on 12 June 2014.

Football fans have until 12.00 (CET) on January 30 to apply for tickets, which are available here.