Caborn calls for bigger World Cup allocation for England

The Football Association will be allocated just eight per cent of tickets for any England match to distribute to its official supporters' club, leading to concerns that fans will seek to buy others on the black market.

Caborn said yesterday: "I have had a lot of representations about England fans not being able to get tickets. We are likely to have the largest following of all the teams travelling to Germany, with 25,000 members of the England supporters' club and only eight per cent of each stadium set aside for England fans, so obviously a lot are going to miss out.

"Our supporters showed both in Japan and Portugal they can enjoy themselves without causing trouble and I think it is important that as many real fans as possible get the chance to see England play in the World Cup when it is so close to home. I am going to write to Sepp Blatter at Fifa and see if there's any possibility they can raise the percentage of tickets available to England supporters."

The actual amount of tickets per match is not yet known - the draw, schedule and venues are to be confirmed in December, after which it will be deermined how many members of the official supporters' club can attend.

The FA has also written to Fifa, stating that it will be willing to take any additional tickets for England matches if they are drawn against a country with few travelling supporters.

The FA and the Football Supporters' Federation have warned fans not to buy tickets from black market sources.

Fifa reiterated this week that, for the first time, there would be random identity checks at all World Cup venues in Germany next summer and anyone found with a ticket who did not correspond to their passport or ID card would be refused entry.

A variety of agencies, in Europe and the United States, is offering guaranteed pre-sales of tickets. However, the tournament organisers insist that any tickets bought through such agencies cannot be correctly identified with an individual, and will be invalid if spotted.