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WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A sponsor is giving away 20,000 tickets to Women’s World Cup matches in New Zealand as ticket sales remain sluggish in a country in which rugby dominates as the national sport.

According to FIFA, 1.25 million tickets have been sold for matches across co-hosts Australia and New Zealand. Of those 320,000 have been sold to matches in New Zealand, but only six of those matches are close to a sell out.

On Thursday, the accounting firm Xero, a tournament partner, said it would offer 5,000 free tickets to a match at each of New Zealand’s four venues.

Vietnam supporters react following the New Zealand and Vietnam warm up match ahead of the women's World Cup in Napier, New Zealand, Monday, July 10, 2023. (AP Photo/John Cowpland)

Co-host New Zealand has pulled off a confidence-boosting win 10 days before facing Norway in the opening match of the Women’s World Cup.

FILE - Australia players pose for a group photo with the Aboriginal flag prior to women's soccer match against New Zealand at the 2020 Summer Olympics, July 21, 2021, in Tokyo. FIFA President Gianni Infantino confirmed the decision on Friday, July 7, 2023, that First Nations flags will be flown at Women's World Cup stadiums in Australia and New Zealand after soccer's world governing body agreed to make exceptions to the usually tight FIFA match day regulations for tournament venues. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan, File)

First Nations flags will be flown at Women’s World Cup stadiums in Australia and New Zealand after soccer’s international governing body agreed to make exceptions to the usually restrictive FIFA match day regulations for tournament venues.

FILE - Signage hangs above the ticket office at the New Lawn, Forest Green Rovers' football ground, in Nailsworth, England. While women’s soccer is growing in popularity in the U.K. - opportunities for women in men’s game remain few and far between. That changed this week when Forest Green Rovers became the first professional soccer team in England to appoint a female head coach. (AP Photo/James Brook, File)

While women’s soccer is growing in popularity in the U.K., the opportunities for women in the men’s game remain few and far between.

FILE - New Zealand's Jitka Klimkova gestures during an international friendly soccer match against South Korea at Goyang stadium in Goyang, South Korea, on Nov. 30, 2021. Women’s World Cup co-host New Zealand has announced a squad including 10 players who will be playing at the global tournament for the first time. The team was unveiled Friday, June 30, 2023, after head coach Klimkova trimmed the squad from 33 to 23 following a seven-week training camp, the longest in the New Zealand team’s history.(AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File)

Women’s World Cup co-host New Zealand has announced a squad including 10 players who will be playing at the global tournament for the first time.

Women’s World Cup chief executive Dave Beeche told the New Zealand Herald that FIFA is “comfortable” with the current rate of ticket sales in New Zealand. He said sales had picked up in recent weeks as coverage of the tournament had increased.

“Naturally, there are some games that are experiencing higher demand with the Kiwis and some of the top-ranked teams,” Beeche said, “but we’re happy with how the progress is overall.”

Last month FIFA’s head of women’s football Sarai Bareman indicated she had some concerns about the pace of ticket sales in New Zealand, despite overall sales being ahead of the 2019 World Cup in France.

Bareman said sales in Australia have been bolstered by support for the Australian women’s team which is a genuine title contender, while New Zealand’s Football Ferns have never won a World Cup group match.

A larger problem is that soccer is not generally a widely supported sport in New Zealand and attracting fans to stadiums in the coldest months of the year was always going to be a hard sell.

New Zealand’s national rugby team, the All Blacks, will play South Africa in Auckland on Saturday in a match which could have been sold out several times over.