FIFA to discharge more World Cup tickets

FIFA (International Federation of Association Football) on Thursday said it will release 150,000 more World Cup tickets seats for next month's tournament in South Africa.

"All together, for the 64 games, its 150,000 tickets we'll put back in the system," said secretary general Jerome Valcke at the handing over of Cape Town's stadium ahead of the June 11 kick-off.

Tickets were available in all price categories and ranged from 200 seats at the South Africa-France match in Bloemfontein on June 22, to 2,000 seats for the semi-finals.

"It's all categories. It's from game one to game 64," said Valcke.
Details of the new tickets will be released on Thursday and go on sale on Friday morning, Valcke said.

South Africans have bought 1.3 million tickets of the roughly three million available, which Valcke said was a "very good response".

"We are very pleased with the final result. We were a bit concerned a few months ago, now we are definitely pleased," he said.

This will be the first time that the tournament has been hosted by an African nation, after South Africa beat Morocco and Egypt in an all-African bidding process. This decision left the Oceania Football Confederation as the only confederation yet to host the FIFA World Cup. Italy is the defending champions. The draw for the finals took place on 4 December 2009 in Cape Town.