Botswana leads in World Cup ticket applications

MQONDISI DUBE
Staff Writer | Thursday February 11, 2010 00:00

Excluding hosts South Africa, Botswana has registered the highest number of applicants for the tickets at 2,519. Mozambique is second with 1,795 followed by Namibia 1,191. According to the latest figures released by FIFA, South Africa accounted for 79 percent of the 958,381 applications received.

The United States of America (USA) leads the ticketing standings for the third phase with 50,217 applications, followed by the UK with 41,529. Australia is third with 15,523 inquiries while Mexico is fourth after making 14,804 applications.

Germany, who hosted the last edition of the World Cup in 2006, have made 14,647 applications and former world champions, Brazil is sixth with 10,767. Surprisingly, fewer applications have been received from current champions, Italy who will be defending their title. A total of 1,206,865 applications for tickets were received from 192 countries.  The fourth ticketing phase opened on Tuesday and will close on April 7. At least 400,000 tickets will be made available on first come, first served basis during the phase.

The last phase will begin on April 15 when ticketing centres will be open in each host city for fans to buy tickets over the counter.FIFA has reported that some matches, including the semi-final and final are oversubscribed and in this case, a random computer selection will be used to sell tickets for the games.

Batswana will purchase tickets through the Botswana Football Association (BFA) which has indicated that it will buy at least 250 tickets allocated to the national association under a FIFA arrangement.

FIFA has allocated each national association a certain number of tickets, and BFA president David Fani told a media briefing last month that they will take up their allocation, which however cannot meet the high demand.