Two million 2010 FIFA World Cup tickets were sold in the first three sales phases, according to football’s world governing body, FIFA.

“We are content with the ticket sales results so far. We still have two more ticketing phases to sell out the event,” Horst Schmidt, the Chairman of the FIFA World Cup Ticketing Sub-Committee, said Wednesday.

The announcement came after the fourth phase of ticket sales kicked off on Tuesday. A minimum of 400,000 tickets for a total of 53 matches have been made available in this phase until April 7.

However, FIFA has warned that these tickets will be allocated on a “first come, first served” basis subject to availability.

“It is important for football fans to note that time is very important when one applies for a ticket. The first come, first served principle means that if you do not apply on time, you run the risk of not getting a ticket,” said Schmidt.

Tickets for all matches in Mangaung, Nelspruit, Polokwane and Pretoria are available as well as matches at Nelson Mandela Bay (except Slovenia vs England) and Rustenburg (except England vs United States).

Tickets for 11 matches out of the 64 will not be available at this stage. The football body said a few tickets could still be made available for all matches at a later stage as some tickets, initially allocated to teams or commercial partners, might be returned to the general public sales process.

Applications can be made on http://www.FIFA.com/2010 or at First National Bank (FNB) branches for South African residents only.