Cape Town soccer fans and visitors to the city can now start planning their 2010 FIFA World Cup™ viewing following the release of the official match schedule.

The World Cup™ will be held between 11 June and 11 July 2010.

Cape Town’s new Green Point Stadium is scheduled to host eight games, including a semi-final. Only Soccer City in Johannesburg, which will host the opening and closing matches, is scheduled to host as many 2010 games.

All but two of the Cape Town matches will take place at night (20:30 local time), meaning that local fans will not have to take time off work to watch at the stadium or at one of the Fan Parks - public places where people can gather to watch matches on large screens, and enjoy the large crowd atmosphere.

The night-time matches will also mean that peak hour traffic out of the city on match days is unlikely to be affected.

Tickets will go on sale in several phases in February 2009. Category 1-3 tickets will be sold locally and internationally in dollars, while Category 4 tickets will only be sold to South Africans (in rands) to ensure that locals are able to afford tickets. The ticket distribution system will be finalised closer to the time. The cheapest tickets will cost R140.

The final draw – where the final 32 teams taking part in the tournament, and the groups they play in will be announced – will take place in Cape Town on 4 December 2009.

After this, the final match schedule will be released.

The opening match will take place at Soccer City at 16:00 on Friday 11 June 2010. That same evening, Cape Town will host its first match, a Group A encounter.

Cape Town’s match schedule is as follows:

Date	Match	Time
Friday 11 June	Group A	20:30
Monday 14 June	Group F	20:30
Friday 18 June	Group C	20:30
Monday 21 June	Group G	13:30
Thursday 24 June	Group E	20:30
Tuesday 29 June	Round of 16	20:30
Saturday 3 July	Quarter final	16:00
Tuesday 6 July	Semi-final	20:30

For the full schedule, with all the other games, click here.