FIFA has granted New Zealand Football permission to install 500 extra seats for this month's World Cup play-off with Bahrain because of the extraordinary demand for tickets.

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New Zealand officials asked FIFA to allow for the additional seats after all 35,000 tickets for the November 14 second leg match in Wellington sold out in less than 10 minutes.

The winner will qualify for next year's World Cup in South Africa after the two teams played out a scoreless draw in last month's first leg in Bahrain.

New Zealand have qualified for the World Cup only once before, in 1982, and the play-off has been billed as the country's biggest match in decades.

Officials had already built temporary seats in tunnels and in front of corporate areas but have found room for another 500.