Pretoria - World football governing body FIFA says in the second phase of sales, tickets for the opening match, semi-finals and the final of the 2010 World Cup have been sold out.
"The second phase of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa ticket sales has seen 105 322 tickets confirmed and approved so far," FIFA said.
Due to a high demand for certain team specific ticket series, these tickets are no longer available for the following countries: England, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, Republic of Ireland and Netherlands.
FIFA said there had also been an incredible demand for individual match tickets, adding that it was no longer possible within the current sales phase to purchase match tickets for games taking place in Cape Town, Nelspruit and Pretoria.
"Individual match tickets for the Opening Match, the two Semi-Finals, and the Final are also currently unavailable.
"However, it is possible to acquire a ticket for the Opening Match, a Semi-Final and the Final by purchasing a Team Specific Ticket Series - 7 (TST-7)," it explained.
This product is fixed - meaning that if the ticket holder's team is eliminated from the competition - he or she will follow the victor all the way to the final match of the tournament.
An additional 72 000 ticket requests are currently being processed and confirmations are due at the end of this week.
FIFA has warned that should any confirmed ticket (-s) not be paid by the applicant, it will be made available to the public again.
Meanwhile, soccer fans who had been hoping to purchase 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup tickets for the Italy/Brazil match have been thrown yet another lifeline.
On its website, FIFA stated that as some of the corporate customers did not use their full ticket quota, there is a small quantity of category one tickets available for the clash on 21 June at Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria
"These tickets can be purchased online at www.FIFA.com, over the phone with a payment card or purchased over the counter at any FNB branch or at any FIFA Ticketing Centre (addresses can be found at www.FIFA.com)," FIFA stated.
A total of more than 400 000 tickets of about 600 000 have been sold so far for the Confederations Cup and the majority of tickets have been purchased and collected at Johannesburg followed by Pretoria, Bloemfontein and Rustenburg, FIFA said.
