128 countries apply for WC2010 World Cup tickets: FIFA

Applications from 128 countries for 216,975 WC2010 tickets were received Saturday via the FIFA website 24 hours after the online tickets went on sale across the globe, FIFA officials said.

The figure excludes hard paper applications handed in by South African residents at the branches of a designated local bank, FIFA said in a statement.

The biggest number of orders came from South Africa, the host, followed by Britain, the United States, Germany, Brazil, Australia, Japan, Mexico, Canada, Switzerland, Ireland, Netherlands, Spain and Argentina.

“These are fantastic numbers, underlying yet again the fervour taking hold around the world for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the first on the African continent,” David Will, chairman of the FIFA ticketing sub-committee, said.

“It is very exciting and further evidence that the global football family wants to be part of this unique event on this very special continent,” the statement quoted him as saying.

Fans have until midnight on March 31 to make their ticket applications on the www.FIFA.com website.

“We are absolutely ecstatic with the phenomenal response of football fans around the world to the start of ticket sales for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa,” chief executive officer of the FIFA local organising committee, Danny Jordaan, said.

“It reinforces the faith of the global football fraternity in South Africa. We stand ready as a country and a continent to warmly welcome the world in 2010,” he added, according to the statement.

In case of over-subscribed matches, a random selection draw will be organised on April 15 to allocate tickets for those matches and all applicants will know by the end of that month whether they have been successful or not, it added.