World Cup ticket no trouble; bed different story

All Whites football fans should have no trouble getting World Cup tickets, but accommodation in South Africa may prove difficult.

Fans can now apply for New Zealand's 12 per cent ticket allocation for each of their three games in next year's tournament through nzfootball.co.nz.

The games against Slovakia in Rustenburg, Italy in Nelspruit and Paraguay in Polokwane will have New Zealand allocations of between 5000 and 5520 tickets.

It was unlikely New Zealand would fill its allocation, New Zealand Football chief executive Michael Gladding said, but accommodation would be hard to find.

"It's going to be harder to get accommodation than get tickets," he said.

"We've had a lot of interest so far – we've had a few hundred.

"I'm not expecting more than 1000 people to be travelling."

Mainland Football development officer Tim Bush and two friends have secured tickets for the All Whites' group games.

Bush expected to pay between $12,000 and $15,000 for the football trip to South Africa. "It is a lot of money, but who knows when New Zealand will make the World Cup again?"

Meanwhile, Italians in Christchurch were mostly happy with the draw.

Federico Tomasetto, 30, described the draw as "quite easy", and he hoped to get Italians in Christchurch together for the matches.

Fiorenzo Peloso, who moved to Christchurch 10 years ago, said Italy may underestimate the All Whites.

"I think the New Zealanders have an advantage," he said.

"They have nothing to lose, so they can play with all their hearts.

"Italy might make the big mistake of undervaluing their enemies."

He said almost all the Italians in Christchurch would watch the games.

"Officially there are 127 Italians in Christchurch. Football is the sickness of Italians, so there will probably be 126 watching."

Peloso said he would be watching the games "Italian-style" – yelling passionately at the television screen with a glass of red wine in one hand.

- © Fairfax NZ News