Whale Cottage Portfolio Blog

More than 200 000 FIFA 2010 World Cup tickets were sold within the first 24 hours of ticket sales going live on-line last Friday, and the majority were sold to South Africans, reports the Sunday Argus.    This figure excludes applications for tickets via branches of First National Bank.

Ticket applications came from 125 countries, and the highest number of applications, after those from South Africa, were from the UK, the USA, Germany, Brazil, Australia, Japan, Mexico, Canada, Switzerland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain and Argentina.

The ticket sales are by application, and the successful applicants for the first round of ticket sales until the end of March will be notified in April.

FIFA has expressed its satisfaction with the ticket application response.  It appears less happy with the low level of Confederations Cup ticket sales, given that the Cup will be contested in South Africa in four months from now.

The first 740 000 tickets for World Cup 2010 go on sale globally at 12h00 tomorrow, reports the BBC.

South Africans are eligible to buy 15 % of the 3 million tickets via the www.fifa.com website, or to go to a branch of First National Bank, where they can fill in an application form.   The prices of tickets have been kept low for South Africans, and range from R 140 for category 4 matches to R 6 300 for the final.

The ticket sales are by application, chosen on a random ballot.  In Germany the World Cup 2006 ticket applications were oversubscribed more than 20-fold.    Each person may only apply for a maximum of four tickets per match, for a maximum of seven matches.

Further ticket sales open on 4 May, 5 December and 9 February 2010.

FIFA’s David Will, chairman of the ticketing committee, said that the impact of the global credit crunch on ticket sales for 2010 is uncertain.