I've done a little bit of research here.
The public sale in Soth Africa is expected to start this year. no more details yet.
The worldwide sale won't start until February 2009.
Now a few changes. The competing countries get 12% instead of 8%. This is great news if we qualify as the stadiums seem bigger than Germany.
The bad news is that the Travel agents are back. Yes £800 for a hotel room and a ticket for Ireland v Italy in New York. Those days are back.
"For the 2010 FIFA World Cup ™, FIFA has decided to allocate a number of match tickets for use in a Tour Operator Programme. The programme will allow qualified and experienced travel companies to provide accommodation, transportation and other related travel services in travel packages of their own creation, to be sold under their own terms of business, together with tickets sold on behalf of FIFA. The 2010 FIFA World Cup Tour Operator Programme will be the first such programme implemented by FIFA for a FIFA World Cup since 1998. "
This translates to - We have seen football fans buy tickets on the internet from FIFA and then book cheap flights and accomodation to visit major tournaments. So we are going back to the old days when officially approved operators screwed fans to the wall with ridiculously overpriced packages. The guys will scoff at the Ray Treacy's of this world charging only a grand for a weekend in Paris.
There will still be a public internet sale of tickets in February next year. Locals can buy tickets for as cheap as $20 but the cheapest ticket for a group match availabel to foreigners will be $80.
I'll post mor einfo here and I'd appreciate any info if anybody has any.
If we qualify I'd feel better about my chances of getting tickets. However as somebody who will go anyway it will be harder to get tickets through legitimate sources.