FIFA said last night that 53,000 World Cup tickets were sold in the first eight hours of the final phase on Thursday, and blamed high demand for the technical problems that caused delays and led to fan frustration at some of the ticket centres.

At the start of the day, 550,000 tickets were still available and you could buy a ticket for any match. FIFA have now confirmed that 23 of the 64 games have now sold out and this doesn't take into consideration the online ticket sales that started at 6pm CET last night.

The day didn't go entirely to plan however. Earlier in the day, police were called to the World Cup ticket centre in Cape Town as a crowd gathered at the entrance to the centre and chanted and yelled at organisers waiting for the centre to open.

The media also had to wait for one hour after the first ticket was sold before the system could print out the ticket - a glitch quickly fixed.

Christa Venter
I can understand there's a lot of frustrated people outside, and we have experienced some teething problems, since it is our first day. The IT guys are well aware of the problem. Obviously it is a timely process, since we are experiencing quite high volumes at this stage countrywide.

So, you could say that the fifth phase and the added facility to buy tickets for cash has had a positive impact on South Africa; for many it signals the beginning of the event and if the sales from day one is anything to go by, the event will be a sell out.