The organisers of the 2010 World Cup have once again insisted the tournament will go ahead as planned in South Africa as they prepared to put on sale the first batch of tickets on Friday.
Plans were today announced to put more than three million tickets on sale in five stages, and Danny Jordan, chief executive officer of the local organising committee, said this was a sign that everything was on track in South Africa's preparations.
"We proclaimed last year already that Plan B is dead and already we are discussing tickets for the World Cup and that clearly indicates to you that the stadiums will be ready," he said.
"People need to go out there and buy tickets to watch the World Cup for the first time in Africa. This is going to be a tremendous event.
"There is only one World Cup in this world, you can buy tickets for only that one World Cup and that World Cup is in South Africa. This is a terrific event for us all, so let's enjoy it together."
FIFA have previously denied having a 'Plan B' in place to switch the tournament at short notice if South Africa was unable to get the infrastructure in place.
Last Wednesday, the South African government committed a further 192million US dollars (£134.9million) towards stadium construction following major budget shortfalls.
From Friday, people will have until March 31 to enter an online ballot via the FIFA website to buy the first 740,000 tickets.
Within South Africa, it will also be possible to enter the ballot at any branch of the First National Bank.
For the first time in history, FIFA has set aside 120,000 discounted tickets for South African residents, including 40,000 free tickets for stadium construction workers.
Asked whether FIFA had any fears whether the current global economic crisis would affect ticket sales, David Will, chairperson of the governing body's ticketing committee, responded: "I'd be a very stupid person to say no, it may. The problem is that we do not know how it will affect the ticket sales.
"The football-loving public are a very peculiar group. (If their team qualifies) they will not be interested in global recessions or they have lost their jobs or they are owing mortgages and all the rest of it.
"They will get here somehow. So they are very peculiar and it's always impossible to predict how far it will affect us."
"We proclaimed last year already that Plan B is dead and already we are discussing tickets for the World Cup and that clearly indicates to you that the stadiums will be ready," he said.
"People need to go out there and buy tickets to watch the World Cup for the first time in Africa. This is going to be a tremendous event.
"There is only one World Cup in this world, you can buy tickets for only that one World Cup and that World Cup is in South Africa. This is a terrific event for us all, so let's enjoy it together."
FIFA have previously denied having a 'Plan B' in place to switch the tournament at short notice if South Africa was unable to get the infrastructure in place.
Last Wednesday, the South African government committed a further 192million US dollars (£134.9million) towards stadium construction following major budget shortfalls.
From Friday, people will have until March 31 to enter an online ballot via the FIFA website to buy the first 740,000 tickets.
Within South Africa, it will also be possible to enter the ballot at any branch of the First National Bank.
For the first time in history, FIFA has set aside 120,000 discounted tickets for South African residents, including 40,000 free tickets for stadium construction workers.
Asked whether FIFA had any fears whether the current global economic crisis would affect ticket sales, David Will, chairperson of the governing body's ticketing committee, responded: "I'd be a very stupid person to say no, it may. The problem is that we do not know how it will affect the ticket sales.
"The football-loving public are a very peculiar group. (If their team qualifies) they will not be interested in global recessions or they have lost their jobs or they are owing mortgages and all the rest of it.
"They will get here somehow. So they are very peculiar and it's always impossible to predict how far it will affect us."
Copyright (c) Press Association
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