South African Airways will no longer be reserving seats on its planes for MATCH, the official ticketing agency of FIFA, for this year's world cup in South Africa.

Seats on peak services will no longer be reserved for MATCH, but rather made open to the public, after the two parties were unable to come to an agreement on terms and conditions for the contract.

One of the key sticking points was MATCH's inability to commit to how many seats they would need.

"SAA and Match couldn't come to an agreement on the number of seats to be provided and the terms and conditions relating to this. The airline can no longer offer Match any special conditions for carriage on our aircraft," a spokesperson for South African Airways has been reported saying to local media in South Africa.