There were scenes of excitement, anger, frustration and outright chaos at many ticketing centres when problems emerged with the online system.

Police had to be called in, in some instances to restore order and prevent people from being crushed in the queues. 

In Pretoria's Brooklyn Mall, tempers flared when the police and security officials sprayed soccer fans who were pushing in the queue, with pepper spray. In the Cape Town queue, a 64-year-old man died of an apparent heart attack while standing in the queue.

FIFA says more than 53 000 tickets were sold in the first eight hours yesterday. By 4pm, a total of 23 matches where already sold out, including the opening game.

Officials from FIFA, Match and FNB said they would do what they could to avoid a repeat of Thursday’s chaos.

“We want to extend out apologies to the general public, who tried to obtain tickets, and we want to thank them for their patience and understanding. We have already been able to identify the challenges,” MATCH CEO Jaime Bryom said. 

As a result of the overwhelming ticket demand, FIFA and the Local Organising Committee also decided to extend the operating hours at some of the ticket centres and FNB branches. – BuaNews