FIFA announces WC2010 tickets process opens Friday

Ticket prices for the 2010 FIFA World Cup range from 80 dollars for group stages to 900 dollars for the final, the organising body said Wednesday.

“We are anticipating an oversubscription of tickets. Our aim is to create a fair distribution system,” David Will, chairman of the FIFA ticketing committee said ahead of the official opening of ticket applications on Friday.

The most expensive ticket for the opening match for category one stadium stands – located alongside the pitch – is 450 dollars.

Semi-final tickets go for 600 dollars while the final costs 900 dollars.

“We are not sure how much impact the current global recession will have on the tournament,” said Hirst Schmidt, a FIFA consultant for the World Cup.

“What we know is that football fans are a peculiar kind. They will want to see their teams at all cost,” he added.

Tickets would be available in three types of sales phases: the random selection draw, the first come first served and last minute sales.

“The reason for having different types of sales phases is the varying demand and anticipates availability of tickets at different stages,” said FIFA.

Applications for the phase one random selection sales close on March 31 with the draws taking place on 15 April.

The draws for the last minute sales will take place on February 1 next year.

“The World Cup is coming, there is no more talk of a plan B,” said Danny Jordaan, chief executive of the organising committee.

For the first time in the history if the world’s top football event, FIFA has set aside 120,000 discounted tickets for South African residents, including 40,000 free tickets for stadium construction workers.

The FIFA deadline for the completion of all the 10 stadiums is October 15.

“Early completion of stadiums will allow us to determine the exact number of tickets to be made available, for now we have approximately three million tickets available,” stated Will.

South Africans will also be allowed to apply for tickets in the local rand currency at a fixed exchange rate at branches of a local bank, First National Bank, which is one of the tournament’s sponsors.

“We realised that in South Africa not everyone has access to the internet or have a credit card,” said Wills.

“FIFA and the organising committee decided to apply a fixed exchange rate of 7 ZAR to 1 USD in order to apply a constant price throughout the sales process,” added Will.

The exchange rate on Wednesday was 10.2 rands per US dollar.

Application forms for tickets will be available online at www.fifa.com at midnight Friday (0100 CET/ 00H00 GMT).

One person is allowed to apply for only four tickets per game for a maximum of seven matches. A ticket applicant may not apply for two matches taking place on the same day.

The one-month global soccer fiesta, which will be hosted on the continent for the first time, starts on June 11.