About two million tickets are to be sold to the general public worldwide for the 2010 World Cup, the FIFA organizing committee said in Johannesburg on Thursday.

Head of legal affairs Leslie Sedibe said two million tickets would be made available to the general public. A further 120,000 tickets would be set aside to give to "nation builders". Sedibe said this would likely include people who had built stadiums and roads ahead of the World Cup.

Commercial partners to the event would also hold competitions to allow members of the public to win tickets.

Tickets would go on sale in February 2009 via FIFA's website. There would also be paper ticket applications available at various outlets in South Africa, and internationally on request, such as through official tour operators.

There would also be restrictions such as only allowing four tickets per household per match, up to a limit of seven matches, to ensure that as many people as possible got to see matches.

South Africans would have exclusive access to the cheapest of four categories of tickets.

(Xinhua News Agency September 5, 2008)