The impatient wait is almost over for millions and millions of football fans the world over! The 2006 Football World Cup kicks off at 16:00 GMT on Friday [midnight on Friday Beijing time] in front of a full house at the Alliance Stadium in Munich, Germany. However, ticketing and security remain two of the major issues for the local organizers.

Nobody is feeling the pressure more that the anxious local organizers in the count down to the the start of this quadrennial football extravaganza.

Depsite the stress, though, Wolfgang Niersbach, vice chairman of the organizing committee, says he is happy with the approach of the long awaited opening game.

He also disclosed during an exclusive interview with CRI, that ticketing has been - and still is - a big headache.

"We have only three million available and we will need 30 million. So there is a big frustration."

The problem is caused by the easy access many European fans to Germany. Mr. Niersbach believes the organizers will still get ticketing requests from fans even down to a matter of minutes before the kick off of matches.

To solve that problem, the organizers have arranged several fan zones equipped with large screen TVs so that tens of thousands of fans from around the world can watch games live via TV and celebrate the football festival together.

However, the carnival atmosphere may lead to security problems, another big concern for the organizers.

"But we can forget the security aspect. It must be much more difficult like that in the stadium."

Mr. Niersbach says they will do their utmost to ensure the safety of fans.

He also expressed his regret at the absence of China from this year's World Cup.

"We are missing China. I'm a close friend of Arie Haan. He was the head coach but was not able to guide the Chinese team to Germany."

He also kindly wished China good luck in their future attempts to make it through to the final stage of the World Cup.