Tough Fifa regulations, including fixed ticket and accommodation prices, could mean that most South Africans will be unable to attend matches at the tournament, Jurgen Rollmann, the World Cup co-ordinator in the German interior ministry told a South African trade delegation last week.

Tickets for the German tournament go on sale in February, with prices ranging between Euro 35 and Euro 600. The tickets will be sold via the internet only.

Rollman urged organisers of the 2010 World Cup to talk to Fifa ?as soon as possible?. ?They have made it clear that this is a Fifa World Cup hosted in Germany. We are just hosts,? Rollman said.

He said Germans who could not afford tickets would be able to watch the games through a public viewing system, a concession from Fifa which he said had come only after ?hard? negotiations.

Rollmann said Fifa, which holds the rights over the games, was likely to exert the same control in SA in five years? time.

He said the German tourism industry was unhappy that tickets for the games would be sold via the internet only. ?I am afraid this will be the case next time (in the 2010 World Cup),? he said.

The South African delegation is led by Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk, who remained optimistic about the positive spin-offs of the world cup.

Van Schalkwyk said the event would offer SA?s tourism industry a marketing platform. He said SA planned to attract 10-million international visitors by 2010.

At the moment, about 6-million international visitors a year come to SA.

Source: Business Day