Just over 15% of the additional tickets available for the 2010 Soccer World Cup were sold online this weekend.
Rich Mkhondo, chief of communications for the Local Organising Committee, says a million tickets became available for sale at midnight on Friday, after the draw announcing which teams would play in which pool. So far, 157 000 of these tickets have been sold around the world.
Mkhondo explains that tickets are being sold online as this gives everyone a chance to buy. “We need to make sure that someone in San Francisco has the same chance as someone in Sydney, and someone in Soweto.”
He says the Fifa Web site has held up, despite the high demand for tickets. This is because the global time zones spread demand, Mkhondo explains. “If we are working, then the Australians are sleeping.”
In January, the first allocation of tickets became available. Fifa put 753 000 tickets up for bidding, and 1.8 million applications were received, Mkhondo says.
Soccer excitement
So far, South Africans have bought 52% of the tickets, both online and in paper format through First National Bank. The option to buy tickets through the bank is limited to South Africans and is aimed at people who do not have Internet access, says Mkhondo.
The bulk of the tickets, between 80% and 85%, have been sold online. The US is the second largest buyer, followed by the UK and then Germany.
An estimated global television audience of 200 million joined the 2 000 invited guests in the draw hall in watching the ceremony.
African sporting stars, such as athlete Haile Gebreselassie, rugby player John Smit, cricketer Makhaya Ntini and footballers Matthew Booth and Simphiwe Dludlu, assisted with the draw, along with England's David Beckham and SA's darling Charlize Theron.
Fifa's draw resulted in the following groups:
Group A: South Africa, Mexico, Uruguay, France
Group B: Argentina, Nigeria, Korea Republic, Greece
Group C: England, USA, Algeria, Slovenia
Group D: Germany, Australia, Serbia, Ghana
Group E: Netherlands, Denmark, Japan, Cameroon
Group F: Italy, Paraguay, New Zealand, Slovakia
Group G: Brazil, Korea DPR, C^ote d'Ivoire, Portugal
Group H: Spain, Switzerland, Honduras, Chile
SA will play Mexico on 11 June at Soccer City.
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