Next stage of World Cup ticket sales starts Sunday

Costa do Sauipe: The next stage of World Cup ticket sales begins on December 8 with all games available except the opening match between hosts Brazil and Croatia in Sao Paulo and the final at the Maracana.

The ticketing window opens at 1200 CET (1100 GMT) on Sunday and closes at 1200 CET on January 30 2014, FIFA said on Friday in a statement. Tickets are available at www.FIFA.com/tickets. Close to 1.1 million tickets were sold in the first sales phase in November, mostly to Brazilians, with Americans, Australians, Argentines, and the English among the keenest international fans looking for seats at next year`s tournament. With Friday`s draw having decided the groups, supporters can now request tickets for specific matches. Soccer`s world governing body is also selling tickets reserved for each set of fans, with 16 percent of those available going to followers of the two competing teams. Known as PMA tickets they can only be bought by supporters living in the competing countries and must be purchased through a separate national link on FIFA`s ticketing page. "These PMA tickets will be sold via a special link accessible either from FIFA.com/tickets or from the respective team page in the FIFA World Cup section on FIFA.com," the governing body said in a statement. "It is important to note that each PMA can decide to only allow their fan club members to get access to these specific supporter tickets. This will be the case for England, for example." If demand exceeds supply, all applications made in this period will be decided in a random selection draw. FIFA have not said how many tickets are being sold during this second phase but overall about 2.9 million tickets will be sold for the 64 matches.