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Rio de Janeiro - FIFA said on Tuesday it was postponing the second round of ticket sales for next year's World Cup to comply with a request by Brazilian authorities to monitor the process.
"In order to ensure the Brazilian authorities' involvement in supervising the procedures for the allocation of tickets following the first sales period, FIFA has had to postpone the draw," football's world governing body said on its website.
Results of this draw for applicants for the over 6.2 million tickets requested in the first round will now be known only on November 10 and not November 4 as previously agreed.
Therefore FIFA decided to put off the start of the next sales period from November 5 to November 11.
"As the next sales period is on a first-come, first-served basis, it is essential that all those applicants for tickets from the first period have been informed on the status of their application by the time we reopen sales," explained Thierry Weil, FIFA's Director of Marketing.
"We cannot risk any fan not being aware of his/her success before we put the remaining tickets on the market. Obviously, our priority is to ensure every applicant has an equal chance of success."
The electronic lottery will take place in the English city of Manchester in the presence of Brazilian government officials and a public notary.
A total of about one million tickets are available in the two sales periods of the first sales round.
Once the lottery has been completed, FIFA will announce how many of the one million tickets remain available for sale in the second round.
"We know we'll be forced to disappoint a host of committed supporters, but even if we'd had three times the number of tickets, we'd still have fallen well short of fulfilling everyone's wishes," Weil said.
In total, FIFA will make available for sale 3.72million tickets for the World Cup, which will be played in 12 Brazilian cities from next June 12 to July 13.
Overall, Brazil, straining to overhaul its creaking infrastucture for its first World Cup since 1950, hopes to welcome around 600,000 foreign tourists for the sporting spectacular.
