Ticket touts banned for the World Cup 2006

[James]

Ticket touts were hit by new UK legislation on Monday, banning the unlicensed sale of any tickets to this summer's World Cup in Germany.
It was already a criminal offence to sell tickets to England's group games.

But new measures have come into effect, closing a loophole that allowed touts to sell tickets for the latter stages of the tournament.

The World Cup gets under way on 9 June, with England beginning their campaign the following day against Paraguay.

Football Association chief executive Brian Barwick believes the new legislation will create a safer and more enjoyable tournament for England fans in Germany.

"It has been extremely frustrating to see online touts, who we monitor on a daily basis, undermining all this good work by selling tickets for the latter rounds in which England could be playing," he said.

"The new regulations will close this loophole and should lead to a better tournament for all England fans in Germany this summer."

Fifa general secretary Urs Linsi added: "Fifa welcomes this major step in the fight against ticket touting taken by the UK government.

"The security and protection of fans visiting the World Cup is our top priority.

"The new legislation in the UK helps Fifa to strengthen its fight against the illegal selling of tickets on the black market both through traditional channels and the internet."

Malcolm Clark, chairman of the Football Supporters Federation, told BBC Radio Five Live: "The real solution to the problem is to have a much greater proportion of tickets allocated to people who want to go to the game, and have earned those tickets through the loyalty system of whatever country it is they support.

"In these games in the World Cup, the competing nations only get 8% each of the tickets - that means five-sixths of them are going to somebody else and too many of those people don't actually want to go to the game and that's what gives rise to the black market."