Dubai
One of the top officials from Fifa’s Match Hospitality has predicted the “best-organised” event when Russia plays host to the 2018 Fifa World Cup in less than two years’ time.
The 2018 Fifa World Cup will be the 21st edition of football’s jewel in the crown global competition and will be held at 12 venues across Russia from June 14 to July 15. This will be the first-ever World Cup to be held in Eastern Europe in the history of Fifa.
On Thursday, Quint Sport Events Ticketing LLC were appointed exclusive agents of Match Hospitality for the GCC region for the sale of 2018 Fifa World Cup Russia official hospitality programme.
Led by its Chief Operating Officer (COO) Pascal Portes, the Match Hospitality team has extensive experience in end-to-end hospitality programme management, and is responsible for the event fulfilment, guest management, technical operations and catering for a number of prestigious tournaments.
Match Hospitality is the only company worldwide that is officially authorised by Fifa to offer and guarantee exclusive hospitality packages for every match of the Fifa World Cup™, directly or through its appointed sales agents.
“We are delighted to be associated with a company such as Quint Sport as our exclusive sales agent in the Gulf Cooperation Council territory. As you can see from the evidence all around us today, Quint Sport has shown great dedication and focus in preparation for the launch of the 2018 Fifa World Cup official hospitality programme. And it is that same dedication and focus that we are confident will make Quint Sport more than equal to the task of connecting football fans in GCC with the 2018 Fifa World Cup in Russia,” Portes told media on Thursday.
As part of their role, Quint Sport will be assisting all fans who will be travelling from the GCC region with end-to-end travel logistics that includes hospitality, match tickets, airfare, accommodation, transfers and local touristic activities during their stay in Russia.
“If I can compare my experience from the past two World Cups in South Africa and Brazil, I can see a lot of professionalism in what the Russians are doing. They are on schedule with their preparations and all stadiums will be ready much ahead of time,” Portes said.
“Four of these stadiums [Sochi, Spartak Moscow, Kazan and Moscow] will be ready for the World Cup way ahead of time. So we are not looking at all the negatives that happened during the World Cup in Brazil two years back. We are headed towards one of the best, if not the best-ever organised World Cup in the history of Fifa,” he added.
As per initial pricing, match packages will start from $850 (Dh3,125) and go upwards as per individual requirements of spectators and fans. “A World Cup consists of 64 matches spread over a month and Quint Sport will be a one-stop ticketing, travel and logistics platform,” Vinay Karamcheti, Founder and CEO of Quint Sport, said.
“Our long-term vision is to make the GCC the sporting hub of the globe since we already have all world-class facilities available at our disposal here. There is no better place to take our potential to the next level,” he added.
The Russian Tourism Board has been among the first to jump in on board while pledging their complete support to provide the fans a hassle-free experience in Russia during the course of this sporting spectacle.
