Posted in News on Apr 17, 2009.
The procedure, completed by a computer program, included all oversubscribed matches (52), as well as all team-specific ticket series for all those teams that were oversubscribed (39).
The random selection draw lasted about two hours and was conducted in the presence of Public Notary Miss Valerie Howard. Following the completion of the random selection draw, the successful applications were validated one last time to identify any multiple applications that may have got through earlier electronic checks.
Each applicant was able to apply for a maximum of four tickets per match and for a maximum of seven matches only. Out of the total of 1,862,319 tickets requested from 205 countries, 555,871 tickets were drawn successfully. Of those, 245,948 tickets were drawn to South African residents – this corresponds to 44 per cent of all tickets successfully drawn during this first phase of ticket sales. Outside the host country, the highest number of tickets drawn was to residents of the United States (69,208 tickets), followed by the United Kingdom (39,421 tickets) and Germany (29,330 tickets).
From the applications received, the most popular team was England, for which a total of 228,822 team-specific tickets (TST) were requested and for which the total number of available TSTs was 8,895. With regard to individual match tickets, the most popular ticket category was Category 4 and the most heavily oversubscribed match was the final, by a factor of 3,000 per cent.
“The whole draw procedure worked smoothly. Of course, we would have liked to please even more football fans at this stage, but there will be other ticket sales phases, the next one starting on 4 May. By implementing an electronic random selection draw, we are able to guarantee that the whole procedure remains fair and all applicants have an equal chance. This is very important to us,” said David Will, FIFA Honorary Vice-President and chairman of the FIFA Ticketing Sub-Committee.
“We are obviously happy to see the huge number of South Africans that have successfully secured tickets for next year’s FIFA World Cup. But of course we will continue to encourage all other South Africans as well as fellow Africans to apply for their tickets during the second phase so as not to miss out on this once in a lifetime experience,” emphasised Danny Jordaan, CEO of the 2010 FIFA World Cup Organising Committee South Africa.
Between today and the end of April 2009, all applicants will be informed via e-mail or SMS whether they were completely or partially successful or whether they were unsuccessful in securing all the tickets they applied for. Applicants who do not receive any correspondence by the end of this month should contact:
Residents of South Africa:
Post: 2010 FIFA World Cup™ Ticketing Centre (FWCTC) PO Box 4928, Cresta, 2118, South Africa
E-mail: enquiries@2010FWCTC.co.za
Phone: 083 123 2010
SMS: 083 123 2010
International General Public:
Post: 2010 FIFA World Cup™ Ticketing Centre (FWCTC) Aurorastrasse 100, 8032 Zurich, Switzerland
E-mail: enquiries@2010FWCTC.com
Fax: +41 43222 6800
Those who were unlucky this time will be able to submit further ticket requests from 4 May 2009, when the second ticket phase commences. It will remain open until 16 November 2009. During this second sales phase, tickets will be allocated on a “first come, first served, subject to availability” basis, i.e. applications will be processed in the order they are received. Tickets will be ready for collection at FIFA venue ticketing centres from April 2010.
FIFA Confederations Cup 2009:
With less than two months before the kick-off of the FIFA Confederations Cup 2009, there have been requests for over 300,000 tickets, which accounts for almost 50 per cent of the tickets available for the event. Fans can order tickets online via www.FIFA.com. Additionally, in the host country, paper applications are available at all branches of FIFA sponsor FNB.
