World Cup website bombarded by ticket demands

Fans around the world bombarded the FIFA 2006 World Cup website in the final hours of initial ticket sales. The initial two-month sales period, where 812,000 tickets were available, has attracted 5.4m ticket applications, over six times as many as the number available. About 1.5 million had been submitted in the previous seven days alone. Tickets will be allocated by means of a lottery at the end of the period, rather than on a "first come, first served" basis, though fans' chances of fully satisfying their wishes remain slim because of the heavy over subscription. Demand has been greater for the final on 9 July and the opening game on 9 June, likely to feature hosts Germany, the only team guaranteed to have qualified. Organizers said tickets for a number of group matches still remained, although fans will not know the participating teams until the draw on 9 December. Fans have been able to apply for a limited number of tickets in the first sales window to follow a particular team throughout the 32-nation tournament. If the chosen team does not qualify, or goes out of the tournament, refunds will be made. The lottery will take place from 15 April and successful applicants should have tickets by early May. Any unsold tickets will be available for sale from 1 May to 15 November and a further lotterybased sale will take place from 1 December to 15 January 2006, with any remaining tickets offered from 1 February to 15 April in order of application. Any last-minute sales will take place from May 2006. Organisers are promising a further 300,000 tickets for fans in these subsequent sales, taking the total to just over 1.1m tickets guaranteed for public sale out of the 2.93 million available. National associations, sponsors, media, and VIPs are offered the rest. Any unused tickets go back on public sale. Ticket prices vary from 35 euros for the group phase to €600 for the best seats at the final.

Source: euFootball.BIZ © Copyright 2006 - All rights reserved.