AFCON 2013: Ethiopia 2nd in ticket sales

The organizing committee of the 2013 AFCON has announced that the ticket sales for the tournament are not going as they hoped for. The committee had planned to sale 500,000 tickets by now but only 300,000 tickets have been sold so far. From the 300,000 tickets sold already, the committee announced, 38,000 are for the opening game and 20,000 are for the final. Both are to be held in Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg.

The committee also announced the countries who have bought the highest number of tickets. Zambia leads the way with 50,000 tickets sold while Ethiopia is second with 30,000. Algeria is placed third with 15,000 ticket sales. The remaining countries in the tournament, apart from South Africa, have only bought a combined total of 15,000 tickets.

Most of the tickets sold to Ethiopian fans are believed to be bought by Ethiopians residing in South Africa. But the football federation has recently requested to buy 15,000 tickets for fans in Ethiopia who will go to South Africa to support their team.

Even though the ticket sales are not high up to the organizing committee’s expectation, it is anticipated that this will be the highest attended AFCON of all time.