Windhoek — With the football world now focusing its attention on South Africa 2010 after the successful hosting of the just-ended 2010 Orange Africa Cup of Nations by Angola , African football supporters will this year have the enviable opportunity of witnessing and hosting yet another global soccer show-piece.

Thousands of football supporters across the continent turned up to watch Ghana take on eventual champions, Egypt on the last day of the 2010 Nations Cup in the Angolan capital, Luanda and not only were they entertained by the action on the pitch, but they were also entertained by the spectacular closing ceremony, which matched any the world has seen before.

As thousands of fans make their way home following a successful Africa Cup of Nations, their attention has now turned to the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa which is going to be the next premier international football tournament to be hosted in Africa, within a period of 5 months.

This will be the first time that the tournament will be hosted by an African nation, after South Africa beat Morocco and Egypt in an all-African bidding process and many African supporters can't wait to make the trip to South Africa in five months time to witness history being made.

With the end of 2010 African Cup of Nations, support from the African continent has started to gain momentum as shown by an increase in the number of tickets sold in the just-ended third ticketing sales phase that closed last month.

2010 FIFA world cup organising committee chief executive officer, Dr. Danny Jordaan, has urged African supporters to come and give total support to South Africa when the country hosts the 2010 FIFA world cup finals because "African football supporters were an integral part of the success of the World Cup."

"Football supporters from all over Africa will bring colour and excitement to the 2010 World Cup.

This is the first time it will be held in Africa and how can we celebrate Africa's success without Africa being present? We will welcome them and they will help us welcome the world to Africa," he said.

amibia is one of the country in the southern African region that has shown great interest to the 2010 World Cup. According to figures recently released by FIFA on its website, Namibia is amongst the leading African countries who have applied for tickets for the World Cup.

During the just-ended third ticketing phase, South Africans made up 79 per cent of the total 1.2 million applications worldwide. In Africa, hot in the heels of the host nation was Botswana who came second with 2,519 ticket applications, followed by Mozambique with 1,795 applications and Namibia with1,191 applications. The FIFA official web site mentioned that apart from the host country, the USA led the ticketing standings for the third phase with 50,217 applications, followed by the UK (41,529), Australia (15,523), Mexico (14,804), Germany (14,647) and Brazil (10,767).

The next ticketing sales phase started this week Tuesday 9 February 2010 and ends on 7 April 2010.