FOOTBALL fans were very critical of the number of empty seats at England vs Senegal.
Large sections of the Al Bayt Stadium were left empty for the World Cup Round of 16 clash.
The ground took a while to fill prior to kick off and seats remained vacant well after kick-off.
One dismayed fan took to Twitter to say: “So many empty seats for last 16 games of a World Cup game, shambles.”
Another added: “The empty seats at big games between countries with large followings doesn’t look like successful hosting to me.”
And a third said: “Empty seats everywhere 🤢.”
And those who failed to turn up missed as England masterclass as goals from Jordan Henderson, Harry Kane and Bukayo Saka sealed a 3-0 win against Senegal.
Southgate’s troops face France in the quarter-finals.
It is not the first time large sections of empty seats have been spotted at World Cup games.
The World Cup opener between Qatar and Ecuador suffered from a lack of interest, with thousands of Qataris leaving at half-time with their side 2-0 down.
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Yet the stadium announcer revealed the attendance was 67, 372, despite the Al Bayt Stadium only holding 60,000.
And the official attendance for England’s win over Senegal in the same arena was bizarrely given as 65,985.
The Three Lions breezed to a 3-0 win over the African champions thanks to goals from Jordan Henderson, Harry Kane and Bukayo Saka.
It means Gareth Southgate’s side have set up a mouth-watering quarter-final clash with reigning world champions France.
The first four games of the tournament all had official attendance figures higher than the capacity of the stadia in which they were held.
Fan were left baffled when the England vs Iran attendance was announced as 45,334 in a 40,000 capacity ground.
More questions began to be asked when it was claimed Senegal vs Netherlands had an attendance of 41,721 – again in a 40,000 seat stadium.
To make matters worse at the end of USA vs Wales, where empty seats were clearly visible on TV, an attendance of 43,418 was given.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
