Nora Fatehi headlines FIFA World Cup opening ceremony in Toronto as empty seats spark debate

The FIFA World Cup in Canada opened with a star-studded ceremony in Toronto featuring Nora Fatehi and global performers. While festivities drew attention, empty seats and ticket availability sparked debate, even as FIFA defended attendance figures from early matches.

Toronto: The maiden FIFA World Cup in Canada started on Friday with a star-studded second opening ceremony ahead of the Group B match between co-hosts Canada and Bosnia and Herzegovina in Toronto.

Bollywood actor and dancer Nora Fatehi was the headline attraction, performing the official World Cup song ‘Siir Siir’. Canada is hosting the FIFA World Cup for the first time in history, and begin their highly-anticipated campaign against Bosnia and Herzegovina, who made it to the tournament by beating European giants Italy.

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The other performers who featured in the opening ceremony included Vegedream and Sanjoy, who took centre stage at the beautiful and majestic Toronto Stadium. The festivities in Toronto also featured performances from Jessie Reyez and Alessia Cara before the kick-off. Palestinian artist Elyanna also performed at the Opening Ceremony at BMO Field, Toronto.

While some fans took to social media to criticise FIFA for another opening ceremony, which many fans found not exciting enough, a fair number of empty seats in the stadium in Toronto were also noted.

Though the Aztecs Stadium in Mexico City was filled to the brim, the tournament’s second fixture, South Korea versus Czechia at Estadio Akron in Guadalajara, witnessed noticeable swaths of unoccupied seats.

According to reports, a day before the tournament began, roughly 180,000 tickets remained posted across FIFA’s official resale platforms. Approximately 15,000 group-stage tickets were still obtainable directly through FIFA’s website.

However, FIFA denied that the stadium in Guadalajara was empty.

“Official attendance figures reflect the number of tickets scanned, and spectators present within the stadium footprint, rather than visual assessments of seating occupancy at any given moment during the match. FIFA works closely with stadium authorities and ticketing teams to ensure all published figures are based on verified operational data,” FIFA informed in a post by FIFA Media on X, formerly Twitter.

“Please note that, during last night’s match in Guadalajara, several ticketed fans could be seen standing in concourses rather than staying in their assigned seats throughout the match,” the post said.