Rio de Janeiro, Jan 16 (IANS): World football's governing body FIFA has announced it was forced to hold a lottery for the allocation of Confederations Cup tickets due to overwhelming demand.

The first phase of ticket sales for the June 15-30 event in Brazil closed Tuesday with 399,525 ticket requests from 78 different countries, reports Xinhua.

"Due to the great demand of tickets for the tournament, a draw will take place for the oversubscribed matches to ensure all fans stand an equal chance," FIFA said.

The city with most tickets requested was Salvador with 93,567, followed by Rio de Janeiro (88,420), Brasilia (68,912), Fortaleza (68,352), Recife (51,518) and Belo Horizonte (28,756).

The most sought-after match has been the tournament opener in Brasilia between Brazil and Japan with 68,912 ticket requests, followed by Italy's duel with Brazil (68,114) in Salvador and the final at Rio's Maracana Stadium (51,388).

"The vast majority of applications came from Brazil followed by the US, Mexico, Spain, Japan, Germany, France, Italy and Argentina," FIFA added.

FIFA said 132,843 tickets had already been sold for the event following the pre-sales credit card phase which ended Nov 30. The next sales phase begins Feb 15.