The world governing body will begin the first phase of selling tickets on Friday, nearly sixteen months before the big kickoff in South Africa next year.

"I’d be a very stupid person to say there will not be any effect on the World Cup from the global recession," FIFA’s World Cup ticketing committee chairman David Will told reporters on Wednesday.

"But the problem is we don’t know just how big an impact it will have on the World Cup."

Will implied that FIFA would be counting on football fans' impervious love to the game, in their attempts to keep the ticket sales on a high.

"The footballing public are a very peculiar group and they might not be too bothered about the global recession or even losing their jobs to go and follow their teams at the World Cup," he added.

"It is our aim to sell every ticket in every stadium for every match."