FIFA admit 650,000 World Cup tickets still unsold for South Africa

Blackleaf

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Oct 9, 2004
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FIFA has admitted that 650,000 tickets out of almost 3 million for this year's World Cup in South Africa are still unsold.

That'll mean that that it'll be the first modern World Cup in which all the tickets haven't been bought.

Over 50% of the total number of tickets bought so far have been bought by South Africans. Of the other nations, by far the largest amount have been bought by the English, though still 1000 of the 29,000 allocated for England's fans have still to be bought. Most other Europeans seem reluctant to travel all the way to southern Africa.

FIFA admit 650,000 World Cup tickets still unsold for South Africa
24/03/10
By Jeremy Armstrong
The Mirror


Wayne Rooney didn't touch the World Cup during the England leg of its world tour recently, but he'll be hoping he'll have his hands on it in July

A massive number of World Cup tickets remains unsold.

With just 11 weeks to go before the first game kicks off in South Africa (South Africa VS Mexico), 650,000 of the 2.95 million total seats have not been bought.

Fifa admitted for the first time yesterday this will be the first modern World Cup where every ticket has not been snapped up.

By contrast, all 64 games at Germany 2006 sold out – with 15 million applications for only 3.4 million seats. Demand through fifa.com, sponsors and tour groups has gone flat.



Now 330,000 of the 570,000 tickets sent out to the 31 competing nations are being returned unsold – 58%.

Even for England, the best supported visiting team, 1,000 tickets among the 29,000 allocation were not taken. And the FA needed a three-month extension from Fifa to shift 28,000.

Number of World Cup tickets sold (not including South Africa)

England: 28,000
Argentina: 18,000
Mexico: 17,800
Holland: 13,000
Australia: 12,900
Greece: 11,700
USA: 10,300
The Rest: 5,375 *

(* 129,000, split between the 24 other remaining countries averaging 5,375 per country)

The Football Supporters’ ­Fed­eration’s Kevin Miles said: “Even our allocation was hard to sell. Other countries have been unable to sell theirs.” He blamed “the price of flights, hotels and transport... a winter tournament and safety issues”.

Fifa said: ­“Ticketing centres in host cities will now be open for sales until July 11, the day of the final, plus the call centre. There will be also mobile sales units.”

mirror.co.uk