FIFA President Gianni Infantino hails Qatar World Cup as best; India second in terms of fans travelling to watch the event

Xtra Time Web Desk: India was second in terms of Hayya Card applications to travel to Qatar to watch the ongoing FIFA World Cup 2022, said FIFA President Gianni Infantino in a press conference on Friday.

“We had 2.3 million Hayya applications, and 1.9 million were approved and the top countries were Saudi, India and USA,” the FIFA president said. “We have 400 thousand applications for volunteers and 20000 were selected,” said Infantino in his final press conference of FIFA World Cup in Qatar.  

The mega sporting event saw 62 matches being played and a mouth-watering final coming up between defending champion France and Lionel Messi’s Argentina. The FIFA president hailed the Qatar World Cup as the “best World Cup ever”. 

“There’s unanimous praise from the FIFA council for this World Cup and for the unique, cohesive power it has shown. I thank Qatar, the organisers, the volunteers and everyone who have made this World Cup the best ever,” Infantino said to the world media in a press conference.

He added, “3.27 million spectators attended the first 62 games; the number was 3.03 for all games in 2018. The average attendance was 52,760, while 1.7 million attended the fan fest, 80,000 on average. No team has won all their games, and a team from each continent was there in the knockouts and we had an African team reach the semis and a woman also referred a match when Stephanie Frappart took charge of the game between Germany and Costa Rica.”