Local Organising Committee (LOC) Chief Executive Danny Jordaan is worried that few local fans are buying tickets for Bafana Bafana's Group A matches.

Jordaan said fewer than 100 000 tickets have been sold to fans in the six African countries competing in the 2010 World Cup finals.

"This will be the first time in World Cup history that the host nation [is] not topping the ticket sales list," he told a media briefing held at Safa House, south of Johannesburg.

"Sadly Bafana are not even in the top 10. England at this stage will have more supporters at their country's games than will be at Bafana matches.

"It will be tragic if this trend continues and I appeal to local fans to come out and support their country."

Bafana open the tournament at Soccer City against Mexico on June 11, then play Uruguay at Loftus on January 16 and finish their group programme against 1998 world champions France in Bloemfontein on January 22.

The two top teams in the group qualify for the second round. The opening match and ceremony was expected to be sold out, but not by Bafana fans.

Bafana, who in 1996 won the African Nations Cup and were ranked in the top 20 in the world, had slipped to 85th in the world rankings and were the lowest ranked team in the World Cup.

Of the African teams competing in the 2010 World Cup, only Bafana failed to qualify for the African Nations Cup finals.

Said Jordaan: "We want this World Cup to be an African World Cup and yet so far all the African teams involved are not coming to the party."

Jordaan said he would be going to Angola soon to speak to the officials of Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria and Algeria.

All five are competing in the African Nations Cup finals in Angola.

"I will be meeting with top officials from the five African teams that will be competing at the World Cup here in June in a bid to stress the fact they need to boost sales and bring their supporters here.

"But the biggest concern at this stage is South African fans are not buying tickets for Bafana matches.

"The sales locally are good for other countries, but not Bafana matches and that is something we have to address urgently."

Of the 3.1 million tickets available, over a million had been sold. The current selling phase ends on January 22 after which the LOC will assess the sales.

Jordaan was confident sales would continue to increase worldwide in the next selling phase as the tournament kick-off nears.

"Apart from Africa, we are happy with the global sales and expect this trend to increase in the coming months," Jordaan said.