Latin Americans fans buying World Cup tickets faster than Europeans

Latin American fans are buying tickets for the World Cup in Russia faster than Europeans, according to figures published by global soccer body FIFA on Tuesday.

FIFA said that 394,433 tickets were sold in the most recent sales period and 216,134 of those were allocated to fans from the host nation.

Fans from the United States were the biggest buyers among foreign supporters with 16,642 tickets, even though their team has not qualified. However, as the numbers are based on country of residence, a proportion of the US sales could come from the nation's large Hispanic community.

The next five biggest purchasers were Argentina (15,006), Colombia (14,755), Mexico (14,372), Brazil (9,962) and Peru (9,766).

Germany, whose team are the defending champions, was the top European nation with 5,974 tickets allocated while China (6,598), Australia (5,905) and India (4,509) completed the top ten.

China and India have also failed to qualify.

FIFA did not give a breakdown for the overall total of 1,698,049 tickets which have been sold so far. The final batch of tickets will go on sale from April 18, the organization said.

A number of European countries and the United States are in a major standoff with Russia, with expulsions of diplomats on both sides, over the poisoning of a former Russian spy in England last month. Britain has blamed the attack on Russia which has denied responsibility.