Huge demand for remaining World Cup tickets
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-01-17 10:10

BERLIN, Jan 16 (Reuters) - The last major sales window for the World Cup has produced 24 times as many applications as there are tickets available, tournament organisers said on Monday.

Soccer fans placed some 677,900 orders for a total of six million tickets in the sales period from Dec. 12 to Jan. 15. There are only 250,000 tickets available from this third and final major sales period.

World Cup organisers said on Monday they will hold one last ticket sale, although it is not clear when that will happen and how many tickets will be made available.

Organisers said they must first see how many tickets return from sponsors and national associations. Some of these will also go to those on a waiting list for anticipated returns.

As in earlier rounds, a ballot, starting on January 31, will determine which fans will be sitting in the stadiums during the month-long World Cup in Germany from June 9. Lucky fans should know by early February.

Organisers said 52 percent of the orders were from within Germany and a total of 89 from Europe as a whole. Foreign demand was much higher than in earlier rounds, conducted before the December draw.

In the first two sales rounds, 812,000 tickets were sold. They were 12 times oversubscribed.