A senior government official has said this week that South Africa needs more money to help promote the World Cup in South Africa, taking place next year.

As of today, you can apply for tickets to the 2010 World Cup taking place next year in South Africa.

All you have to do is click here and you'll be taken to the page at FIFA.com where you need to login (register for an account if you don't have one) and register your interest.

Tickets for the 2010 World Cup will go on sale, sort of, from tomorrow. When I say 'sort of', I mean it's a ballot, you're not going to be actually able to buy the tickets, you're sort of entering a lottery to get a ticket.

We do not have a link as of yet to where you can buy these but thee will be something here tomorrow and there will be a link from the FIFA website. The ballot opens at 11am GMT but it's not about first come first served, so if the site doesn't respond, just go back later.

With the 2010 World Cup set to start in South Africa in less than 500 days the Chairman of the Local Organising Committee (LOC), Irvin Khoza, is calling for more excitement throughout South Africa.

"The challenge is that not everybody has internalised the magnitude of this event," Khoza, said on a radio interview to mark 500 days to go to the event earlier this week.

The World Cup posters for each of the host cities will be unveiled on Monday, marking 500 days until the World Cup event takes place in South Africa.

"Monday next week will be exactly 500 days to go to the world's biggest sporting spectacle, watched by a cumulative audience of more than 26-billion spectators worldwide, and South Africa's preparations are in overdrive," is a quote from a statement issued by the 2010 Local Organising Committee today.