{"id":83434,"date":"2026-06-13T20:54:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T20:54:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/83434\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T20:54:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T20:54:20","slug":"empty-seats-everywhere-for-qatar-switzerland-world-cup-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/83434\/","title":{"rendered":"Empty seats everywhere for Qatar-Switzerland World Cup match"},"content":{"rendered":"

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) \u2014 There appeared to be thousands of empty seats scattered throughout Levi\u2019s Stadium for the World Cup<\/a> match between Qatar and Switzerland on Saturday.<\/p>\n

On an unseasonably warm June afternoon by Bay Area standards, with the temperature at kickoff around 82 degrees Fahrenheit (28 degrees Celsius), many of those vacant seats were on the east side of the stadium that typically can get very hot for much of the year.<\/p>\n

With the Swiss fans clad it bright red, they blended in with the empty red seats.<\/p>\n

On Friday, FIFA blamed the empty seats<\/a> during the World Cup match between South Korea and the Czech Republic<\/a> in Guadalajara on fans who watched from the concourses.<\/p>\n

For NFL games at Levi\u2019s Stadium, crowds are often late arriving because of tailgating outside the venue in the heart of Silicon Valley, but it is not allowed for World Cup matches. That made for smooth entry Saturday as small lines formed outside several hours before kickoff.<\/p>\n

Levi\u2019s Stadium holds 68,500 for NFL games but can be expanded to more than 70,000 for soccer. Brazil and Colombia<\/a> drew 70,971 two years ago in a group match at Copa America.<\/p>\n

The stadium in Santa Clara staged the Super Bowl<\/a> only four months ago.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP World Cup: https:\/\/apnews.com\/fifa-world-cup<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) \u2014 There appeared to be thousands of empty seats scattered throughout Levi\u2019s Stadium for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[3033,42738,10940,2783,4863,599,40609,2019,42739,307,17,20691,11338],"class_list":["post-83434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-switzerland","tag-california","tag-czech-republic-national-soccer-team","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-general-news","tag-national-football-league","tag-qatar","tag-qatar-national-soccer-team","tag-soccer","tag-south-korea-national-soccer-team","tag-sports","tag-switzerland","tag-switzerland-national-soccer-team","tag-u-s-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116744792728764275","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}