2018 World Cup: Roll up for ‘obese person’ tickets

Overweight football fans will be able to buy ‘special access tickets’ for the 2018 Fifa World Cup in Russia.

Regular tickets, which went on sale yesterday at Fifa.com, are priced from £80 for non-Russian fans hoping to see the cheapest group stage matches, the Daily Mail reports. The most expensive category one ticket is priced at £829 for the final at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow.

As at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, special tickets for obese people are also on sale, starting at £80 for group matches. A number of seats have been reserved for oversized supporters, but anyone who buys the tickets must provide a document to to confirm their condition, The Times reports.

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The Fifa rule says: “The ticket holder must carry and present at any time, upon request of the Fifa World Cup authorities, the required official documents which evidence his/her fulfilment of the personal condition required for the purchase or use of the ticket.”

Following the first phase ticket sale launch - which continues until October 12 - Fifa also announced that musical instruments that produce a “loud sound” would be banned from stadiums. That rules out the vuvuzela, which was heard regularly during the 2010 finals in South Africa. Horns and pipes are allowed, The Times reports.