South Africa is the host nation for the 2010 FIFA World Cup™. The tournament begins on June 11th, 2010 and runs through July 11, 2010. Ten venues will host FIFA World Cup™ matches in nine host cities. Thirty-two teams will compete in 48 matches in the first round of the tournament. The second round is a knockout stage where 16 teams will compete in 15 matches. Including the thrid place consolation match there will be 65 matches in 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa that one can but tickets for.
For the 2010 World Cup FIFA instituted a set of procedures which break up ticket allocation into five phases to ensure the process is fair and transparent. The five phases of allocations for World Cup tickets include periods of first-come-first-served allocations and periods where the tickets will be alotted by random selection. FIFA put this system in place to address the fact that many matches will have demand greater than the supply.
According to FIFA:
The first phase of tickets sales runs from February 20th, 2009 through March 31st 2009
During this sales phase, the allocation process will involve a random selection draw for all over-subscribed Matches or Team Specific Tickets. The first sales phase random selection draw will take place on 15th April 2009. Please note: it makes no difference whether you apply early, on 20th February 2009, or late, on 31st March 2009. Each correctly submitted application will have the same opportunity of being successful in the draw.
The second phase of tickets sales runs from May 4th, 2009 through November 16th, 2009
Ticket applications submitted during this sales phase will be processed, subject to availability, on a first-come-first-served basis – in the order the application is received.
The third phase of tickets sales runs from December 5th, 2009 through January 22nd, 2010
The procedure is the same as that of phase one: all correctly submitted applications received during this sales phase will be considered for allocation. If the number of applications for Match or Team Specific tickets exceeds the number of tickets available, tickets will be allocated by a random selection draw taking place on 1st February 2010. Please note: it makes no difference whether you apply early, on 5th December 2009, or late, on 22nd January 2010. Each correctly submitted application will have the same opportunity of being successful in the draw.
The fourth phase of tickets sales runs from February 9th, 2010 through April 7th, 2010
Ticket applications submitted during this sales phase will be processed, subject to availability, on a first-come-first-served basis – in the order of receipt.
The final/last minute phase of ticket sales runs from April 15th, 2010 through July 11th, 2010
Ticket applications will be processed on a first-come-first-served basis, however Ticket transactions will be conducted immediately at the point of sale.