Hosts seek to woo more African fans to World Cup

FIFA, football’s international governing body, has always insisted that the World Cup, which begins in Johannesburg on June 11, is aimed at celebrating African football. In addition to the South African hosts, a record five African countries are taking part, namely Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Algeria, Cameroon and Ghana.

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Attending festivities in Durban on Tuesday to mark 100 days to kick-off, FIFA president Sepp Blatter again repeated that the World Cup was aimed at giving something back to Africa for all it has done for football.

But since tickets went on sale last year, African fans have been obliged to use the same online application process as buyers in the rest of the world – despite the poor Internet penetration and the limited use of credit cards on the continent.

As a result, with 3.2m tickets up for grabs worldwide, the top-buying country outside South Africa is neighbouring Botswana, where only about 1,700 tickets have been bought. Sales in football-mad countries like Nigeria run into only a few hundred.

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Local organising committee chairman Danny Jordaan said: “We have begun working with Africa's qualified countries. The FIFA-approved booking agency, Match, is going to visit each of the five countries and the government is sending a delegation to each country to try to deal with the issues. We are also paying attention to the lack of direct flights into South Africa.”

With ticket sales flagging worldwide, a maximum of just 200,000 foreign visitors – against the initial estimate of 500,000 – are expected in South Africa during the month-long tournament.

To fill stadiums, ticket kiosks have been opened in South Africa and tens of thousands of tickets have recently been made available to local fans at the specially low price of 20 dollars. But fans in the rest of Africa are still expected to pay the international price of 80 dollars.