A shortage of tickets rather than high prices will hamper Sooth Africans who want to see any of the 2010 Soccer World Cup matches, chief executive of the local organising committee Danny Jordaan said on Tuesday.
”There will be more than three million tickets in total, but this is the World Cup and so we would be lucky if we have one million of those available for South Africans,” Jordaan said at a conference in Johannesburg on the readiness of the accommodation industry for the tournament.
The tickets for the 64 matches that will take place in South Africa during 2010 will likely go on sale in 2009.
In the meantime, the first step for teams to qualify to play in the World Cup will be taken when the preliminary draw takes place in Durban in November.
Jordaan said 202 countries were expected to take part in the draw.
South Africa as host country qualifies automatically, as do Italy, who won the Cup in Germany in 2006.
”It would be the first opportunity to show what we are going to deliver in 2010,” Jordaan said. — Sapa