London, Feb. 27 (ANI): FIFA has warned that thousands of fake or bogus tickets for the football World Cup this summer in South Africa are being sold on websites for many times their face value.

It added that sellers were seeking to profit from fans desperate to buy tickets of the now sold-out England group games, semi-finals and finals.

Fifa has said that it would not issue paper tickets until a few weeks before the competition starts - supplying them to the original applicant at collection points in South Africa.

“Genuine tickets are sold online exclusively via the official website Fifa.com. A special team from Fifa’s legal affairs division is working with international authorities to monitor the internet for such illegal offers and to take action to combat them,” The Times quoted a FIFA statement, as saying.

Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Police central e-crime unit said: “Tickets will only be issued in South Africa for the World Cup. So anyone claiming to be able to supply tickets will be either supplying counterfeit tickets or nothing will be received.

“Given that tickets for the World Cup can only be collected in South Africa, it appears that any site offering tickets will have criminal intent,” it added.

FIFA’s rules state that tickets may only be used by the ticketholder named at the time of purchase, whose name will be printed on the ticket.

Nevertheless, companies in Britain and overseas are openly reselling tickets for sold-out matches at a hefty mark-up. (ANI)