Football: Easier World Cup ticket sales planned for South Africans

(AFP/JOHN MACDOUGALL)

South Africans will be able to buy World Cup tickets over the counter, the tournament's chief said Monday, following complaints that the existing sales system is too complicated for local fans.

Currently South Africans can apply for tickets online or at bank branches, drawing criticism because many fans have no Internet access or have to travel long distances to banks.

"We are definitely in the process of changing this and as a member of the ticketing committee, I am confident that FIFA will understand our position," chief organiser Danny Jordaan told a government news agency.

He said fans could expect to buy their tickets over the counter from April, adding that FIFA would discuss the details of the new system at its next meeting.

Last week Jordaan voiced concern that few local fans were buying tickets for the national team Bafana Bafana, saying it would the first time in World Cup history that the host nation is not topping the ticket sales list.

Around 50 percent of the three million tickets set aside for South African residents have been sold for the first World Cup on African soil.

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