Chelsea face thousands of empty seats for Club World Cup semi-final
Thousands of tickets remain on sale for Chelsea’s Club World Cup semi-final against Brazilian side Fluminense tomorrow, despite Fifa slashing prices.
It means the match at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey could take place against a backdrop of empty seats of the like that has dogged the tournament.
Fifa drastically reduced prices over the weekend to as little as $13.40 (£10) in a bid to fill the 82,500-capacity venue, which will also host Sunday’s final.
Despite that, many hundreds of tickets remained on general sale for $22.30 (£16) just a day before the clash, while thousands more seats, starting at $25 (£18), were available on the tournament’s official resale market.
Underdogs Fluminense are expected to be backed by a vocal band of travelling fans, as they have been throughout the Club World Cup, in the clash with Chelsea.
Chelsea supporters who travelled for the tournament told Morning Wire that they estimated that only around 50 fellow Blues fans had made the trip from the UK for the whole tournament, with a rolling cast of a few hundred in attendance at each game so far. More were expected to fly out this week with a semi-final – and possibly a final – in prospect.
Fifa Club World Cup final still to sell out
Fifa has come under fire for its pricing strategy at the Club World Cup, the first as an expanded 32-team competition taking place in the summer every four years.
World football’s governing body was forced to cut ticket costs in the final days before the tournament and even offered free seats to US fans for some games.
Tickets remain readily available for Sunday’s final, which will feature either Chelsea or Fluminense against Paris Saint-Germain or Real Madrid, on the official portal.
General admission tickets start at £256 (£188), while resale tickets are priced from $357 (£262) to $1,600 (£1,174).