We posted in January that it looked as if England were going to be the best supported team in South Africa during the World Cup later this year, but it turns out, we might be wrong. Numbers recently released show that residents in America had purchased the most tickets.

As of the third ticketing phase, managed by FIFA, 2.1 million tickets had been sold for the event and of that number 107,576 had gone to America and England were second highest with 63,835 tickets sold.

Coming in third was Germany with 29,733, closely followed by Australia with 26,488 tickets sold.

The fourth phase of the ticketing process began on February 9th and ends on April 7th and prior to this phase opening, 311,271 tickets were still available for sale to the general public. If you haven't yet got one, but in tend on travelling, you should order quickly.

Phase Four conditions
All correctly submitted applications received during this stage will be considered for allocation. If the number of applications for Match or Team Specific tickets exceeds the number of tickets available, tickets will be allocated by a random selection draw taking place on 1 February 2010. Please note: it makes no difference whether you apply early, on 5 December 2009, or late, on 22 January 2010. Each correctly submitted application will have the same opportunity of being successful in the draw.

At the moment, 194,349 tickets have been confirmed which leaves 116,922 available. You do not want to be buying tickets from a tout at hugely high prices, just because you left it too late.

More tickets will become available for previously sold out matches as and when FIFA get back allocations set aside for specific organisations, but there are no guarantees you will get one of these if you haven't entered the 'random selection draw sales phase' which closes on on 31st March 2010.