As it’s a Fifa norm to allocate world cup tickets to its member federations, Rwanda’s football federation (Ferwafa) has revealed that it expects more than 200 world cup tickets from the world body.

According to the local football governing body’s chief executive officer, Jules Kalisa, the allocation will be made earlier next year.

Each Fifa member association is allowed an allocation of World Cup tickets.        

Fifa are concerned with the potential damage that may arise from the global economic crisis, despite tickets for the showpiece event selling well.

Fifa have revealed that ticket sales for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa are booming but world football’s governing body voiced caution about the potential impact of a prolonged economic crisis.

"There are at least 28 matches of the 64 that are sold out, the demand is huge,” said Fifa Secretary General Jerome Valcke after a meeting of the executive committee.

"Some 800,000 ticket requests has been made since tickets were opened for sale online on February 20,” he added.

Valcke said the event’s major sponsors also gave no sign of reconsidering despite fears about the impact of cost-cutting on sports sponsorship.

The 2010 Fifa World Cup will be the 19th Fifa World Cup, an international tournament for football, which is scheduled to take place between 11 June and 11 July 2010 in South Africa.

It will be the first time that the tournament has been hosted by a nation in the Confederation of African Football, leaving the Oceania Football Confederation as the only Fifa Confederation never to have hosted the event.

Africa was chosen as the host for the 2010 World Cup as part of a new policy to rotate the event between football confederations (which was later abandoned in October 2007). Five African nations placed bids to host the 2010 World Cup:

Following the decision of the Fifa Executive Committee not to allow co-hosted tournaments, Tunisia withdrew from the bidding process. The committee also decided not to consider Libya’s solo bid as it no longer met all the stipulations laid down in the official list of requirements.

After one round of voting, the winning bid was announced by Fifa president Sepp Blatter at a media conference on 15 May 2004 in Zürich. South Africa was awarded the rights to host the tournament, defeating Morocco and Egypt.

As the host nation, South Africa qualifies automatically for the tournament. However, South Africa is the first host since 1934 to participate in World Cup qualifiers.

This is because the Caf qualifiers also serve as the qualifying tournament for the 2010 African Cup of Nations, for which South Africa had to qualify separately. Like the previous tournament, the defending champions Italy do not qualify automatically.

The preliminary draw for the 2010 World Cup was held in Durban, South Africa, on 25 November 2007.

The Final draw for the 2010 Fifa World Cup will be staged in Cape Town, South Africa, on 4 December 2009 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.

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