FIFA to hold lottery for Confederations Cup tickets

 　　RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- World football's governing body FIFA announced Tuesday it was forced to hold a lottery¹ for the allocation of Confederations Cup tickets due to overwhelming demand.

　　The first phase of ticket sales for the June 15-30 event in Brazil closed on Tuesday with 399,525 ticket requests from 78 different countries, FIFA said on its website.

　　"Due to the great demand for the Festival of Champions, a draw will take place for the oversubscribed matches and/or categories to ensure all fans stand an equal chance of receiving their preferred choices," FIFA said.

　　The city with most tickets requested was Salvador with 93,567, followed by Rio de Janeiro (88,420), Brasilia (68,912), Fortaleza (68,352 Recife (51,518) and Belo Horizonte (28,756).

　　The most sought-after match has been the tournament opener in Brasilia between Brazil and Japan with 68,912 ticket requests, followed by Italy's duel² with Brazil (68,114) in Salvador and the final at Rio's Maracana Stadium (51,388).

　　"The vast majority of applications came from Brazil followed by USA, Mexico, Spain, Japan, Germany, France, Italy and Argentina," FIFA added.

　　FIFA said 132,843 tickets had already been sold for the event following the pre-sales credit card phase which ended on November 30. The next sales phase begins on February 15.

　　The Confederations Cup is seen as an organizational warm-up for the World Cup a year later.

　　The tournament will comprise FIFA's six continental³ champions, host nation Brazil and European runner-up Italy, by virtue⁴ of the fact European champion Spain also qualifies as the defending World Cup champion.

1 lottery   

n.抽彩；碰运气的事，难于算计的事

参考例句：

• He won no less than ￡5000 in the lottery.他居然中了5000英镑的奖券。
• They thought themselves lucky in the lottery of life.他们认为自己是变幻莫测的人生中的幸运者。

2 duel   

n./v.决斗；(双方的)斗争

参考例句：

• The two teams are locked in a duel for first place.两个队为争夺第一名打得难解难分。
• Duroy was forced to challenge his disparager to duel.杜洛瓦不得不向诋毁他的人提出决斗。

3 continental   

adj.大陆的，大陆性的，欧洲大陆的

参考例句：

• A continental climate is different from an insular one.大陆性气候不同于岛屿气候。
• The most ancient parts of the continental crust are 4000 million years old.大陆地壳最古老的部分有40亿年历史。

4 virtue   

n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力

参考例句：

• He was considered to be a paragon of virtue.他被认为是品德尽善尽美的典范。
• You need to decorate your mind with virtue.你应该用德行美化心灵。