WORLD CUP TICKET CRISIS
Desperate England fans could end up paying £1,000 for World Cup tickets after it emerged supporters will be restricted from watching every match involving their team.
The Football Association will only receive 8% of the seats in stadiums featuring England during the 2006 tournament in Germany.
The tickets can only be bought by members of the official England Supporters' Club - Englandfans.
This means fans who are not members could end up paying £1,000 for illegal tickets in a bid to watch their team.
Membership of Englandfans has been capped at 25,000 and no more applications will be accepted before or during the World Cup.
Any tickets bought outside the official FIFA sources will be spotted by new technology at stadiums and cancelled.
So fans who have forked out a fortune for tickets could still be stopped from watching England play.
The FA will not know exactly how many tickets they will receive until the beginning of December when the draw for the finals takes place.
Soho Square says the ticket allocation is the same for all other competing nations for the tournament and exactly the same situation for the 2002 World Cup and Euro 2004.
But the FA has appealed to FIFA to take any last-minute tickets for England games.
Fans can buy tickets for other matches through the FIFA website, but tickets for England games have already been bought up.
The FA has been allocated such a small amount because sponsors, hospitality and general ticket sales eat up 64% of stadium seats, with 7% going to football associations of countries not playing in the tournament.
Desperate England fans could end up paying £1,000 for World Cup tickets after it emerged supporters will be restricted from watching every match involving their team.
The Football Association will only receive 8% of the seats in stadiums featuring England during the 2006 tournament in Germany.
The tickets can only be bought by members of the official England Supporters' Club - Englandfans.
This means fans who are not members could end up paying £1,000 for illegal tickets in a bid to watch their team.
Membership of Englandfans has been capped at 25,000 and no more applications will be accepted before or during the World Cup.
Any tickets bought outside the official FIFA sources will be spotted by new technology at stadiums and cancelled.
So fans who have forked out a fortune for tickets could still be stopped from watching England play.
The FA will not know exactly how many tickets they will receive until the beginning of December when the draw for the finals takes place.
Soho Square says the ticket allocation is the same for all other competing nations for the tournament and exactly the same situation for the 2002 World Cup and Euro 2004.
But the FA has appealed to FIFA to take any last-minute tickets for England games.
Fans can buy tickets for other matches through the FIFA website, but tickets for England games have already been bought up.
The FA has been allocated such a small amount because sponsors, hospitality and general ticket sales eat up 64% of stadium seats, with 7% going to football associations of countries not playing in the tournament.
