4.5 million tickets ordered during the third sales period

535,000 orders for 4.5 million tickets these are the provisional figures for the third sales period for 2006 FIFA World Cup tickets, which will come to an end at midnight CET on Sunday (15 January). Compared with the two previous sales periods, interest from abroad has risen incredibly: 89 per cent of orders have come from Europe, with barely half of them, 53 per cent, from Germany. “These impressive figures confirm the tremendous interest in the 2006 FIFA World Cup from around in the world,” commented OC Vice President Horst R. Schmidt. “We have received orders from a total of 197 countries.”

“Despite the enormous interest, those applying in the remaining two days do have a realistic chance of getting a FIFA World Cup ticket,” Schmidt continued. People wishing to target specific games should look no further than five first round ties which are not yet over-booked: Tunisia Saudi Arabia (14 June in Munich), Saudi Arabia – Ukraine (19 June in Hamburg), Paraguay – Trinidad and Tobago (20 June in Kaiserslautern), Iran – Angola (21 June in Leipzig) and Ukraine Tunisia (23 June in Berlin). Some games have been the subject of a great deal of interest so far, namely the Final (9 July in Berlin) and the Round of 16 tie on 24 June in Munich, as well as the first stage games between Germany – Poland (14 June in Dortmund), Brazil – Australia (18 June in Munich), Sweden – England (20 June in Cologne) and The Netherlands – Argentina (21 June in Frankfurt).

250,000 tickets will be made available for the third sales period, and the order form is available on the Internet under www.FIFAworldcup.com . Orders can be placed for all games except the Opening Match.

As with the first sales period, a ballot will be made under the supervision of an official, on 31 January. In early February, ticket allocations will be made known and written order confirmations sent out including the ticket category and number of tickets ordered.

(fifaworldcup.yahoo.com)