After three of the five ticketing sales phases for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, two-thirds of the available tickets have been sold.

The third ticketing sales phase, which will conclude with a random draw for oversubscribed matches on February 1, saw a total of 1 206 865 applications received from 192 countries. Six matches are currently oversubscribed (in all categories), among them the semi-finals and the final.

There was huge interest from South African residents, who accounted for 79% of the total applications received (958 381) in this phase. This represents an increase of 24,9% in applications from South African residents in the third sales phase when compared with the earlier ticketing stages.

Apart from the host country, the USA led the ticketing standings for the third phase with 50 217 applications, followed by the UK (41 529), Australia (15 523), Mexico (14 804), Germany (14 647) and Brazil (10 767). Increased interest was also noted in the neighbouring countries of South Africa – Botswana leading with 2 519 ticket applications followed by Mozambique (1 795) and Namibia (1 191).

The next ticketing sales phase will start on February 9 and end on April 7. During these 58 days more than 400 000 tickets will be made available on a first-come, first-served basis.