JOHANNESBURG — Soccer fans are bidding for tickets to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, with FIFA receiving more than 1.6 million requests.

Fans from 205 countries applied in the first phase of online sales, soccer's world governing body said Wednesday. The tickets will be allocated in a lottery on April 15.

South African residents made around 30 percent of the 1,635,136 requests for seats. They will pay $15 for the cheapest seats at group stage matches.

"We want to encourage even more South Africans and Africans to apply for their World Cup tickets during the next sales phase," said Danny Jordaan, chief executive of the 2010 World Cup organizing committee.

Fans from the United States made the most applications from abroad, followed by the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and Australia. The international price starts at $80 for a seat at a group-stage match.

The most popular requests on the 64-match program were for the opening game on June 11 and the final on July 11. Both will be played at the Soccer City stadium in Johannesburg, which is being upgraded to hold 94,700 spectators.

Fans who are allocated tickets in the lottery will find out by e-mail or text message by the end of April.

Applicants were limited to four tickets per match and a maximum of seven matches. To deter ticket scalpers, applicants cannot buy tickets to different matches played on the same day.

The second round of sales on FIFA's Web site begins on May 4 and runs through November.

A third phase of sales will begin in December after the 32 finalists are known and the draw is announced for the group stage matches.