FIFA has drawn a veil of secrecy around ticket sales for the World Cup soccer matches to be played in Port Elizabeth in June and July this year.

After 10 days of trying unsuccessfully to gather information on tickets sales, The Herald was yesterday told only that “with the exception of the match between England and Slovenia, which has been sold out, tickets are still available for the other matches”.

Despite repeated requests for the numbers of tickets sold to date for Port Elizabeth, none were given to The Herald. The metro’s 2010 directorate is also in the dark about the exact figures for tickets sold so far.

Marketing manager Putco Mafani said his directorate was also still waiting for a response from Fifa with the update on sales after having put forward a request last week.

“We have not received the update in numbers, but learnt that there is one match (England v Slovenia) that has been fully booked,” he said.

“There are tickets still available for the other matches, and it is important for the people of the metro to take advantage of the fourth and fifth phases.

“There is the opportunity to see a match of the calibre of Portugal taking on Ivory Coast where we will see Cristiano Ronaldo squaring up against Didier Drogba for only R140.

“That is one other game that should be sold out,” Mafani said.

The Herald learnt from a source that the figures were being withheld by Fifa for security reasons.

Eleven of the 64 World Cup matches have been sold out. The matches are: England v US (Rustenburg), England v Algeria (Cape Town), Slovenia v England (Port Elizabeth), Portugal v Brazil (Durban), Round of 16 at Ellis Park, Johannesburg, Round of 16 in Cape Town, quarter-final in Cape Town, quarter-final at Ellis Park, Johannesburg, semi-final in Cape Town, semi-final in Durban and final at Soccer City, Johannesburg.

On a national scale, at the end of the third phase of ticket sales there was huge interest from South African residents, who accounted for 79% of the total number of applications received (958381) so far.

Apart from the host country, the US led ticket standings for the third phase with 50217 applications, followed by Britain (41529), Australia (15523), Mexico (14804), Germany (14647) and Brazil (10767).

Increased interest was also noted in South Africa’s neighbours, Botswana leading with 2519 ticket applications, followed by Mozambique (1795) and Namibia (1191).

The next ticketing sales phase starts today and ends on April 7. During these 58 days, more than 400000 tickets will be made available on a first come, first served basis via www.fifa.com/2010 or at First National Bank branches.

From April 15 ticketing centres will be open in each host city.

Fans will be able to buy tickets over the counter and also collect their confirmed tickets.