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Hosts South Korea's exit will serve as a big blow to ticket sales for the FIFA U-20 World Cup as the organizers now hope South Koreans still fill the seats for other nations' matches.
South Korea ended their U-20 World Cup journey in the round of 16 on Tuesday after losing to Portugal 3-1 at Cheonan Sports Complex in Cheonan, some 90 kilometers south of Seoul.
South Korea, not surprisingly, have been the most popular team in this 24-team competition. They drew 99,837 fans in their first three matches, accounting for 34 percent of total attendance of the group stage. The local organizing committee, led by Korea Football Association President Chung Mong-gyu, announced that 295,410 fans visited stadiums in 36 group stage matches, averaging 8,206 attendance per match.
The U-20 World Cup, which kicked off May 20, is being staged in six South Korean cities: Jeonju, Cheonan, Daejeon, Incheon, Suwon and Seogwipo on Jeju Island.
Tickets for South Korea's opening match against Guinea at Jeonju World Cup Stadium in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, were sold out as well as their last group match against England at Suwon World Cup Stadium in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, although both matches actually had some empty seats on the match day due to no-shows.
The attendance for the tournament opener, which South Korea won 3-0, was 37,500, while 35,279 fans watched South Korea's 1-0 loss to England. South Korea's 2-1 win against Argentina drew more than 27,000 fans.
South Korea also sold all available tickets for their round of 16 match against Portugal. The organizers said 21,316 fans were at the 25,814-seat Cheonan Sports Complex for what turned out to be South Korea's last match at the U-20 World Cup.
The local organizers previously said they wanted to achieve an average attendance of 10,000 and expected ticket sales to go up once the U-20 World Cup enters the knockout stages. But now without their top ticket seller, the organizers are likely to see low figures in attendance as South Koreans don't seem to have much interest watching other nations' performances.
The round of 16 match between Venezuela and Japan in Daejeon on Tuesday drew only 2,013 fans, the second-smallest crowd so far in this tournament. The Group B match between Venezuela and Vanuatu in Daejeon on May 23 currently holds the mark for the lowest attendance at 1,495.
Besides South Korea's matches, the Argentina-England match so far has marked the highest attendance. The two football rivals clashed on the opening day of the tournament for their Group A contest in Jeonju and drew 15,510 fans.
Since the biennial men's youth football championship was expanded to the 24-team format in 1997, the 2011 edition in Colombia had the highest average attendance at 25,191, while the 2013 U-20 World Cup in Turkey had the lowest average attendance at 5,821. (Yonhap)
