‘A possible fever’ from football fans hunting for a ticket to watch the friendly match this month between English Premier League side Manchester City and the Vietnamese men’s national football team has not occurred in the last few days.

Expensive prices are likely the main reason.

Tickets started selling on July 10, but only 50 people have visited the office of the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) to book wholesale purchases.

This is quite different from the friendly with Arsenal in 2013, when thousands of fans queued up in long lines while jostling one another to buy tickets.

Tran Duc Linh said he went to the VFF office to book 30 tickets for his workplace, lender Agribank, in Hanoi. Others came to book several tickets each.

The match tickets are available at four prices – VND1.8 million (US$83), VND1.5 million ($69), VND1 million ($46) and VND600,000 ($27.6).

Prices for the match against Arsenal two years ago were VND1.5 million ($69), VND1 million ($46), VND700,000 ($32) and VND400,000 ($18).

SHB Bank, the main sponsor and one of the organizers of the Manchester City match, holds 10,000 tickets for the game, or a quarter of the total count.

Dang Trung Dung, deputy general director of SHB, explained that his bank has not planned to profit from the match because it considers this a non-profit activity.

“It cost SHB a big sum to bring Manchester City to Vietnam as well as other expenses for transport, security and accommodation,” Dung said.

“The high ticket prices are not for recovering the costs, but for matching the value and the trademark of Manchester City.”

It was reported that SHB and other sponsors paid around $1.55 million to bring the Citizens to Hanoi.

The game kicks off at 8:00 pm on July 27 in the Vietnamese capital city.

In 2013, Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group spent around $2.3 million inviting Arsenal to Vietnam.

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