Reports by Ramatsiyi Moholoa

After a barrage of criticism because of their failure to advertise the Confederations Cup, the Local Organising Committee is stepping up its campaign to promote the event.

The new aggressive campaign includes going up north for the Zion Christian Church Easter conference in Moria, Limpopo, from April 9 to 13.

More than 1,5 million ZCC members from as far as Mthatha, Durban, Sebokeng, Swaziland, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi usually attend the gathering.

LOC's chief communications officer Rich Mkhondo said the visit to Moria was part of their campaign to educate people about the Confederations Cup.

Mkhondo said the LOC and the marketing company would launch a campaign on March 18 to boost ticket sales for the Confederations Cup.

"We are going very big to boost the Confederations Cup ticket sales, the plan is to go to all the strategic places in South Africa to advertise the tournament.

"That will include the various shopping malls in the townships and suburbs, bus terminals, taxi ranks and canteens of major companies.

"We will also step up our radio and television campaigns featuring greats like Fernando Torres (Spain), Mohamed Aboutrika (Egypt) and Kaka (Brazil).

"The fact that 170000 tickets have been sold out out of a possible 640 000 is encouraging in a country where traditionally people buy tickets in the last few days.

"We urge our people to stop the behaviour of buying tickets on the eve of the games, otherwise they won't be able to watch some of the fixtures.

"We all know that most of the games like the one featuring Brazil and Italy have generated massive interest," continued Mkhondo.

Soccer bosses like Irvin Khoza, Kaizer Motaung and Danny Jordaan also urged South Africans to change their attitude of buying tickets late, starting with the Confederations Cup.

Meanwhile, Icon have been appointed to handle the Confederations Cup signage, with Worldwide Sports a strategic partner.