PETALING JAYA: Thousands of football fans queued up as early as 8pm on Saturday (Dec 8) at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil and selected Al Ikhsan outlets for tickets to the AFF Suzuki Cup first leg final match even though counters will be opened the next day.
Malaysia will host Vietnam in the first leg of the final at the National Stadium on Dec 11 before travelling to Hanoi for the return leg on Dec 15.
At about midnight Saturday, the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) posted a status on its social media account stating that tickets are expected to be sold out quickly as more than 6,000 fans were already in line at Gate A and E of the National Stadium.
The footballing body urged fans to stay calm and disciplined and not resort to cutting queues when the counters are open.
FAM secretary-general Stuart Ramalingam also anticipated that some fans who are queuing up might not even get tickets due to the huge number of fans gathered at the stadium.
“For those who cannot get the tickets, please do not be disappointed because the capacity of the stadium cannot be added and the response for the first leg final is extraordinary,” he said in the statement.
Checks at the Football Republic in Sunway Pyramid here and IOI City Mall also saw thousands of fans queuing up to get tickets.
These outlets are only selling 3,000 and 1,000 tickets respectively.
Meanwhile, in another update at 8am Sunday (Dec 9), FAM advised fans who have yet to purchase their tickets not to go to the stadium as it does want them to go home empty handed.