Sold! 2 million World Cup tickets

Pretoria – Two million tickets applications have been received for the 2010 Fifa World Cup, the Local Organising Committee announced on Wednesday.

This is two-thirds of the more than three million tickets to be sold in five ticketing sales phases for the 2010 Fifa World Cup in South Africa. Ticket sales to the general public started in January 2009.

LOC Chief Executive Officer Danny Jordaan said he was pleased how the tickets were selling.

“We are very happy with the way tickets are selling and we are confident that all the tickets for the tournament will be sold in the next sales phases, said Jordaan.

Fifa Secretary General Jerome Valcke shared Jordaan’s sentiments, saying he was happy with how the tickets were selling.

“We have sold close to two million tickets and we are certain that all the tickets will be sold come 11 June, he said.

The next ticketing sales phase will start on 9 February 2010 and end on 7 April 2010. During these 58 days, more than 400,000 tickets will be made available on a first-come, first-served basis via www.fifa.com/2010 or in FNB branches (in South Africa only).

From 15 April 2010 onwards, ticketing centres will be open in each host city (with two in Johannesburg) where fans will be able to buy tickets over the counter and also collect their confirmed tickets.

Jordaan said he was particularly impressed with the support and interest South Africans have shown towards Bafana Bafana.

“We are happy with the support Bafana Bafana is getting,” he said.

The statistics indicate that there was huge interest from South African residents, who accounted for 79 percent of the total applications received (958,381) in this phase. This represents an increase of 24.9 percent in applications from South African residents in the third sales phase when compared to the earlier ticketing stages.

Apart from the host country, the USA led the ticketing standings for the third phase with 50,217 applications, followed by the UK (41,529), Australia (15,523), Mexico (14,804), Germany (14,647) and Brazil (10,767).

Increased interest was also noted in the neighbouring countries of South Africa – Botswana leading with 2,519 ticket applications, followed by Mozambique (1,795) and Namibia (1,191).

To further enhance the service, ticketing call centres will be open during the fourth sales phase – both internationally and in the host country. The call centres will assist fans with enquiries and applications. The hotline number for international customers is 0041445832010, and for domestic customers 0831232010.

For residents of the host country, the allocation of category 4 tickets (the most affordable, for South African residents only – starting from USD 20/ZAR 140) will, as planned, increase significantly.