Pretoria - The third ticketing sales of the 2010 FIFA World Cup has hit the 500 000 mark within the first ten days.

A total of 386 300 of the tickets were bought by South African soccer fans, while the remaining 114 237 were bought by fans from all over the world.

Presently, the USA is leading the list of foreign countries for the sales phase with 22 942 tickets, followed by the UK 20 232, Mexico 7 981, Germany 7 697, Australia 6 277 and Brazil 4 760.

In total, ticket applications from 166 countries have been received and the figures do not include the participating member associations allocated ticket sales.

Horst Schmidt, Chairman of the FIFA Ticketing Sub-Committee said: "In comparison with the previous editions of the FIFA World Cups, the latest ticket application figures are impressive."

Danny Jordaan, Chief Executive Officer of the 2010 FIFA World Cup said the number of domestic applications had increased significantly.

"By buying a ticket, South Africans are not only buying a seat to watch a match, but also their spot in South African history," he said.

Applications for individual match tickets or Team-Specific Series can be made via www.FIFA.com/2010.

South African residents have an option to apply for tickets at FNB branches across the country. The current third Ticket Sales Phase will run until 22 January 2010.

In total, about one million tickets for all 64 matches and categories are made available in the third sales phase including a limited number for the opening match and the final.

All applications within the sales phase will be treated equally. In an event of over-subscribed matches or price categories, there will be an electronic random selection draw on 1 February 2010.

The prices for group matches range from $20 to $160 (opening match: $70 - $450; final: $150 - $900) or R140 to R1 120 (opening match: R490 - R3 150; final: R1 050 - R6 300).

The category 4 tickets, the most affordable, have been exclusively set aside for South African residents.

All 32 participating member associations have started to sell their allocated Team-Specific Tickets which are 12 percent of all purchasable tickets in the stadiums for the three group games of the respective team.

These tickets are made available through specified websites operated by the respective federations. For this specific ticket sales process, applications close on 13 January 2010.

Source: BuaNews

By Bathandwa Mbola

Pretoria - Soccer fans worldwide will today find out if their ticket applications for the 2010 FIFA World Cup has been successful or not.

FIFA, the world football governing body, will from today, notify soccer fans who have applied for the World Cup tickets during the first phase of the ticket sales.

"All requests received for tickets will be entered into a random selection draw today and applicants will be informed by e-mail or SMS," explains FIFA on its website.

According to FIFA "all applicants will know by the end of April 2009 at the latest whether they have been successful or not."

Once notified, successful applicants will have the cost debited to their credit card, said FIFA.

A total of 1 635 136 tickets were available in the first sale, between 20 February and 31 March.

The highest number of ticket applications came from 205 international countries.

Sales from South Africa amounted to 30 percent while 70 percent of the applications came from the USA, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and Australia, in that order.

The most popular category on average was Category 3, with tickets for the opening match and the final in Johannesburg's Soccer City stadium on 11 July 2010 in most demand. Team-specific ticket series applications account for more than 50 percent of the applications.

The next phase of applications kicks off on 4 May and closes on 16 November 2009. These applications will be processed on a first come, first serve basis.

This means that applications will be processed in the order they are received, so time is of the essence.

For now the www.fifa.com website, which is one of the places to apply for tickets, will remain closed until the second sales phase, starting on 4 May.

Phase Three will run from 5 December 2009 to 22 January 2010. These tickets will be allocated through a random draw that will take place on 1 February 2010.

By this time the 32 finalists will be known and the draw for the group stages will have been settled.

Phase Four runs from 9 February to 7 April 2010. As in Phase Two, tickets will be allocated in the order in which applications are received - so the earlier the better.

Phase Five runs from 15 April to 11 June 2010 and is the last-minute sales phase.

By this stage the application form system will have been done away with and it's every man for himself, according to FIFA. At this stage tickets will be available for purchase in real time - subject to availability - on the FIFA.com and at FNB branches.

Source: BuaNews