Egypt-Uruguay Match Worst-Attended World Cup Game in Eight Years
Fans skipped Uruguay's 1–0 win over Egypt in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on Friday, making it the worst-attended World Cup game since the 2010 tournament.
FIFA said it's investigating why more than 5,000 people with tickets didn't show — the group allocated 32,278 tickets and the official attendance was 27,015 for kickoff.
On the television broadcast, empty orange seats could be seen throughout the stadium.
Another possible explanation is that Yekaterinburg is also the furthest east of Russia's 11 host cities.
The last game with such a small crowd was Paraguay’s win over Slovakia in 2010.
There were some empty seats in the VIP section at the beginning of the second half of the World Cup opener Thursday but fans eventually made their way back.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
