England return 6,000 World Cup tickets

ENGLAND fans have not taken up 6,000 of the 29,000 World Cup tickets allocated by organisers to the Football Association for the official supporters’ club.

The FA confirmed in a statement that almost all England supporters will receive tickets for the games they applied for – but a number of tickets for particular categories and games for the summer tournament in South Africa will be returned to FIFA.

Around half of the 6,000 returned tickets relate to a possible third or fourth place play-off appearance by England.

FIFA insist that many England fans will have bought tickets via general distribution and say they are not worried about overall ticket sales.

Only one match has been oversubscribed by members of the official supporters’ group England fans – the last 16 match, should England qualify – and the FA say they are hopeful of securing the 150 outstanding tickets to satisfy that demand.

An FA statement last night said: “We are pleased to confirm that further to our various conversations with FIFA and their ticketing agency Match, that all members of the official England supporters club – England fans – who applied for World Cup tickets have been allocated those tickets for the group stages.

“Should England qualify for the round of 16 game, the FA are approximately 150 tickets short of meeting the current demand, however conversations are ongoing with FIFA and Match to try and secure these outstanding tickets.

“England fans who have applied for tickets for all other knock-out games beyond this stage will be allocated those tickets.

“England were allocated almost 29,000 tickets for the entire tournament and approximately 23,000 tickets have been taken by englandfans members.”

A FIFA spokesman said details of all ticket sales would be announced by organisers next week.