02 February 2005	Wednesday	22 Zilhaj 1425

FRANKFURT, Feb 1: Over 50,000 people applied for 2006 World Cup tickets within the first 12 hours of the ordering system going live, organisers said on Tuesday. Applications came from 108 countries, including Burkina Faso and Macao, although the vast majority - over 80 percent - were from households in Germany.

A few minor technical problems hit the system on the first morning but were quickly solved, according to organisers. "Our system survived the first attack well and it is secure," said organising committee vice-president Horst R Schmidt.

Fans can apply for a maximum of 28 higher-priced tickets - up to four tickets per match for up to seven matches - in the first sales window, which opened at midnight on Feb 1 and runs until March 31.

For the cheapest category tickets, fans can apply for a maximum of two tickets for up to three matches. The 53,000 applications received up until 1200 local time on Tuesday were for around 300,000 tickets, over a third of the 812,000 tickets that are available in the first sales phase.

"I expect that we'll reach the milestone of a million ticket orders on Wednesday or Thursday," said organising committee vice-president Wolfgang Niersbach. Such high demand comes despite the fact that Germany is still the only nation to be certain of qualifying for the 32-team event.

Orders received in the first two-month sales period will go into a draw on April 15, with the order in which applications are made making no difference. -Reuters