The Reason Why There Will be Thousands of Empty Seats for England Vs Sweden

Please Subscribe and Enjoy More England are finally involved in a World Cup quarter-final once again.After three tournaments of failure, Gareth Southgate's side managed to win the country's first knockout game since 2006.And they did it the hard way, banishing their penalty shootout hoodoo to overcome Colombia in Moscow.Now, Sweden represent the next obstacle for the English in Samara, a fixture in which the Three Lions will be the favourites.Should they do so, they will partake in their first competitive semi-final since 1996 and their first World Cup one since 1990.It's the biggest England game ever for the younger generation but amazingly, there is set to be thousands of empty seats at the game.The Samara Arena seats around 45,000, but it will not be at capacity.The Telegraph published a grim report on Thursday evening detailing exactly why the atmosphere will not be what it could come Saturday afternoon.Apparently, 2000 tickets suddenly became available on Fifa.com on Thursday evening, just 48 hours before kick-off in Samara.Sadly that timescale leaves fans wanting to make the trip with little or no chance of actually making it.Russian authorities have even tried to entice fans by offering to issue visas in just one day and helping to find accommodation.However, there are barely any seats on flights left, with the only ones available being valued at around £1500.Most of those are likely to have come from Colombian fans, who held one of the largest fan bases in Russia.Both England and Sweden have travelled in very small numbers, meaning the tickets just aren't being snapped up.And all of this is not including the unsold tickets from the secondary market and Russian ticket touts.Not exactly ideal for a World Cup quarter-final.Unless neutral supporters already stationed in Russia fancy splashing between £132-£276 for the game, the Samara Arena is going to look rather empty. ...