World Cup ticket sales hit more technical problems

The sale of 2002 World Cup tickets on the Internet was shut down for the second time today after more technical problems hit the project.

The application system through asp's was delayed by ten days and now limits have been placed on the number of visitors who can access the fifaworldcup.com site where the entry forms for the draw for tickets are to be found.

The servers have struggled to meet demand with Asian ticket sales badly hit by the problems on-line which fans are experiencing. Fans across the world have seen access times to the site become very variable over the past week.

It is still possible to apply on-line for tickets with 3 million up for grabs on the 'net but the access problems for the FIFA site which is running the application process have slowed the whole process down.

Many fans in Asia have turned to paper application forms but these became scarce after just two days of the ticket application process starting on February 15th but more of these sheets have been printed and distributed to meet demand.

Applications for the first round of tickets to be allocated through the draw system end on March 14th and the web site process should be back running by the end of today but Asian fans have been experiencing particular problems with the FIFA site.