With just 50 days to go until the World Cup starts in the Caribbean there is concern over dwindling ticket sales. The problems with some nationalities needing to obtain visas is believed to be playing a major part.

Applicants who require visas must either reach their nearest office or mail their passports along with $100 and join a long waiting list.

"This is the worst public-relations nightmare that the Caribbean has ever created for itself," said Josef Forstmayr, managing director of Round Hill Hotel and Villas in Montego Bay, Jamaica.

George Goodwin, chief executive officer of the local organizing committee in Antigua and Barbudam, added: "Ticket sales are not going as robust as people had originally hoped."

However, Chris Dehring, the chief executive of the World Cup organising committee, was more upbeat: "This event has faced so many challenges that at this stage, everything is full steam ahead," he told The Miami Herald, "the little hiccups are simply rolled out."