Whether your country has qualified for the 2018 World Cup in Russia yet or not, you need to register with FIFA by Wednesday, October 12, 2017, to be able to buy tickets. The Panenka provides a guide to buying tickets for the tournament.

People who want to apply for tickets must register to do so on FIFA’s official website and then go through an online application process. A random draw will then take place to decide successful applicants, the entry deadline for which is 11am on 12 October.

There will then be a first come, first served sale between 16-18 November before a second sales phase opens on 5 December – four days after the World Cup draw has taken place in Moscow. Again, a random draw will take place, followed by a first come, first served sale lasting between 13 March and 3 April 2018. And finally, if there any tickets remaining, they will be sold in a last-minute sales phase, which will be on a first come, first served basis, between 18 April and 15 July 2018.

//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

All purchases must be made via Fifa’s website.

There are four categories – individual match tickets, venue-specific ticket series (VST), team-specific ticket series (TST) and supporter tickets (ST)/conditional supporter tickets (CST).

Individual match tickets are for specific fixtures and can be purchased in sale phases 1 and 2, as well as the last-minute sales phase.

The VSTs can be purchased during sale phases 1 and 2 and provides the purchaser with tickets for all group, round of 16 and third place play-off matches played at a specific World Cup venue, of which there are 12.

TSTs allow purchases to obtain tickets to watch a specific team, and there are two categories: TST3, comprising tickets for that team’s three group matches, and TST7, comprising tickets for that team’s group matches and, should they progress, every knockout fixture, including the final.

STs and CSTs are again team-specific tickets but allow the purchaser to buy tickets for just the group matches (STs) or for just the knockout matches, including the final (CSTs). If someone purchases a CST but the team in question fails to progress from their group, it immediately becomes invalid and a refund will be paid minus a handling charge.

There are four price categories for every round, with Category 1 tickets the most expensive and Category 4 the cheapest and only available to Russian residents. The price per ticket varies, and increases, as the tournament progresses.

//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});