FIFA have announced that the final batch of 164,000 World Cup tickets will go on sale tomorrow - two weeks before the start of the global spectacle.

More than 95% of the 2.88 million tickets have been sold so far, with the final drive expected to complete near sell-out crowds for most of the games across South Africa's 10 venues.

Speaking at the official handover of the Green Point Stadium by the City of Cape Town to FIFA, secretary general, Jerome Valcke, said: "These tickets are because we have a lot of buffers.

"Myself, I have thousands of tickets to accommodate a number of requests. We will put back these tickets into the public system. It will be the final time that we are making such announcement.

"It's a quite large number of tickets from game one to 64. They become available on Friday (tomorrow), all the tickets, and then it's over."

Initial estimates suggest that South Africans have bought 1.3 million tickets, with this number largely boosted by the final sales phase which began on April 15.

Valcke said: "We are very pleased with the final result.

"We were a bit concerned a few months ago, now we are definitely pleased."

Meanwhile, Australia became the first of the 32 finalists to arrive in the host country when they touch down in Johannesburg late yesterday.