Fifa are facing the embarrassing prospect of a string of World Cup matches being played out in front of thousands of empty seats.

As the world governing body launched an investigation into thousands of no-shows at today's game between Egypt and Uruguay, Telegraph Sport can reveal that eight of the tournament’s remaining 12 opening group fixtures have not sold out, including England’s match against Tunisia on Monday. A further seven group games also have tickets remaining.

Fifa are looking into why there were so many empty seats for the Egypt-Uruguay match at the Ekaterinburg Arena, a sight which sparked criticism on social media. Gaps in the crowd were also picked up upon during Morocco’s game against Iran in St Petersburg.

A spokesman said: “We can confirm that 32,278 tickets have been allocated for the match between Egypt and Uruguay in Ekaterinburg.

“The Fifa World Cup stadium capacity is 33,061. The fact that the current attendance doesn’t reflect the amount of allocated tickets can be due to different factors, which Fifa is currently investigating.”

The attendance was recorded as 27,015 - 6,046 down on capacity, meaning there were 5,263 no-shows.