Fifa has taken new measures to facilitate fans’ access to match tickets for the 2010 Fifa World Cup. These measures are directed, in particular, at fans of the participating member associations (PMAs) and add to previously taken measures directed at South African residents.

The move comes as the excitement surrounding the first World Cup on African soil continues to grow and only a week before the closing of the third ticket sales phase for the general public on January 22.

Measures taken for the sale of tickets via the PMAs:

· To ensure that fans from the qualified associations have more time and easier access to tickets to watch their teams, Fifa has agreed to create a new PMA sales phase between February 9 and April 7. Only one such phase had previously been planned, starting on December 5 last year and closing on January 13. This second PMA sales phase will run at the same time as the fourth sales phase for the general public, carried out via Fifa.com (and the FNB branches in South Africa only) and will operate on a first-come-first-served basis.

· For the first PMA sales phase, any tickets allocated to one of the participating teams for their matches that have not been sold will be provided to opposing teams who have received more requests from their fans than tickets allocated in that period. This will help ensure that those PMAs who received more requests than tickets available in that first sales phase will be able to fulfil those requests.

This extension of the sales process is a major step towards ensuring that all fans have the chance to purchase tickets for Fifa’s flagship competition via official sources.

As already announced, Fifa has set up an accommodation booking tool to help fans:

www.Fifa.com/accommodation

For more information about ticketing and the 2010 Fifa World Cup, go to: www.Fifa.com/tickets