How the 2010 World Cup Ticket Sales Phases Work

All the essential info about the ticket sales phases for the 2010 Soccer World Cup

Overview of 2010 ticket sales phases:

2010 Ticket Sales Phase 1
Date: 20 February 2009 - 31 March 2009
Basis: Random selection

2010 Ticket Sales Phase 2
Date: 4 May 2009 - 16 November 2009
Basis: First come, first-served

2010 Ticket Sales Phase 3
Date: 5 December 2009 - 22 January 2010
Basis: Random selection
Note: This phase opens the day after the announcement of the 2010 World Cup Final Draw.

2010 Ticket Sales Phase 4
Date: 9 February 2010 - 7 April 2010
Basis: First come, first served

2010 Ticket Sales Phase 5
Date: 15 April 2009 - 11 July 2010
Basis: First come, first served (if any tickets are still available).

The second round of ticket sales for the 2010 FIFA World Cup started on 4 May 2009, with approximately 100 000 tickets available on a first-come, first-served basis.

This phase runs until 16 November 2009, or until tickets made available for the second phase run out.

Ticket applications can be made via www.fifa.com or at any First National Bank (FNB) branch in South Africa.

South Africans who apply at FNB branches must present a valid form of identification, while foreigners who apply at FNB branches must show their passports.

Those who apply on behalf of friends or family must provide their names, nationalities, dates of birth and identity numbers.

Each applicant can apply for up to four tickets per match and up to seven matches in total. Ticket prices start at US$20 (R140).

Applicants in the second phase will be informed of the outcome of their application within 10 working days, and tickets will be available for collection from FIFA's venue ticketing centres from April 2010 onwards.

Two more sales phases after the second phase - a random selection followed again by a first-come, first-served phase - will follow the World Cup Final Draw on 4 December 2009, in which the 32 participating teams will be drawn into eight groups for the tournament.

Finally, if there are still any tickets left over, these will be sold in a "last minute" round of sales running from 15 April to 11 July 2010.

In the first round of ticket sales, over 1.8-million ticket applications from 205 countries were received. Of these, a total of 555 871 tickets were successfully drawn.

South Africans accounted for 245 948 or 44 percent of these ticket sales, followed by the United States (69 208 tickets), United Kingdom (39 421 tickets) and Germany (29 330 tickets).

From the applications received, the most popular team was England, with 228 822 team-specific tickets requested and 8 895 successfully awarded.

Not surprisingly, the World Cup final was the most heavily oversubscribed match, by a factor of 3 000 percent.

Find out about categories and prices for 2010 tickets.

Read up about the 2010 Stadiums.

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