About 1.8 million tickets have been sold for the FIFA World Cup 2022 scheduled to be held in Qatar from November 20, and of them, Indian fans have bought more than 23,500 of them.
According to a report in Al Jazeera, with this, India ranked seventh in ticket sales after the first phase of ticketing. This, however, is not an isolated incident. As per the report, almost 18,000 fans from India were in attendance during the FIFA World Cup 2018 held in Russia.
After US and China, India had the third highest number of fans in Russia among all non-competing nations.
Read more: FIFA World Cup 2022 | A look at Qatar's eight World Cup stadiums
But, this is in stark contrast to football fans' interest in the domestic game or teams. In 2018, national men’s team captain Sunil Chhetri appealed to football fans via a video through the Indian Football Team's Twitter handle to attend the team’s Asian Cup qualifiers in Kolkata.
This is nothing but a small plea from me to you. Take out a little time and give me a listen. pic.twitter.com/fcOA3qPH8iRelated stories
— Sunil Chhetri (@chetrisunil11) June 2, 2018
Chhetri's appeal to "come and watch us at the stadium" bore fruit as the next day fans flooded the Mumbai Football Arena (MFA) and witnessed Chhetri and company defeat Kenya 3-0.
A YouGov survey carried out on behalf of the Indian Super League club FC Goa revealed this year that there are 160 million football fans in India, but the passion for the sport is not reflective of the state of Indian football.
In May, the funding of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) was slashed by 85 per cent citing poor performance of the men’s team and lack of structure in the women’s game.
In August, FIFA suspended the All India Football Federation (AIFF) with immediate effect due to "undue influence from third parties". It also meant that the Under-17 women's World Cup, which was scheduled to take place in India from October 11-30, cannot be held in the country as planned.
Read more: Explainer: Why did FIFA suspend the AIFF, and what does it mean for Indian football?
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