"FIFA can confirm that 2,403,116 tickets have been allocated to football fans all around the world since sales started in September 2017.

"Most of them have gone to Russian fans (871,797), followed by fans from the USA (88,825), Brazil (72,512), Colombia (65,234), Germany (62,541), Mexico (60,302), Argentina (54,031), Peru (43,583), China (40,251), Australia (36,359) and England (32,362) – the top-10 countries from abroad. International demand accounts for 54%," FIFA said in a statement published on their official website.

FIFA added that more than 100,000 tickets, which were previously reserved for other FIFA client groups, would be made available for sale on a first-come, first-served basis on Friday.

Russia will host its first-ever FIFA World Cup between June 14 and July 15 at 12 stadiums across 11 cities - Moscow,  Kaliningrad, Saint Petersburg, Volgograd, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Saransk, Rostov-on-Don, Sochi and Yekaterinburg.