Fans devastated by ticket scandal

PARIS, June 13: France '98 promised to be an unforgettable event, but the World Cup proved to be a nightmare for thousands of soccer fans al...

PARIS, June 13: France 8217;98 promised to be an unforgettable event, but the World Cup proved to be a nightmare for thousands of soccer fans all over the globe who were denied their rightful tickets opening up a pandora8217;s box of ticket scandals.

There is no exception, those affected included fans from Tokyo to people from the suburbs of Sao Paulo. Thousands of fans to their dismay found that they will not get tickets for which they paid well in advance from travel agents. While some realised this before boarding the flight many faced the reality after arriving in France.

8220;I am disappointed and irritated and angry, but for the moment I am mostly numb,8221; a Hiyachi, a Japanese fan said after arriving in Paris. She had come all the way from Tokyo to see Japan8217;s performance in the World Cup. Her travel agents said they cannot do anything about the tickets as they did not receive them from the organisers.

She is not alone there are 12,000 Japanese fans who have been denied their rightful tickets. Japanesemedia representatives in Paris said their compatriots were still in a state of complete disbelief but had done little to protest unlike their Brazilian friends.

Hundreds of Brazilians held an impromptu march in a hotel in Paris last night. The disappointed fans were among those who did not receive tickets they had ordered for Wednesday8217;s game between Brazil and Scotland. Several hundred Scottish fans also were left in the lurch, and as many as 40,000 English soccer supporters paid for tickets they did not receive.

German media reports said that thousands of their fans had been affected by the ticket mystery, what it called the greatest World Cup scandal of all time. Over 1,500 Germans jammed phone lines to a travel agency in Dusseldorf who agreed to supply tickets to them after receiving the payment.

A German travel agent said he cancelled organised trips to Germany8217;s matches with Yugoslavia and the US. And that the potential damages could reach into several millions of marks, after he was not giventhe tickets by the accredited agents. You can imagine something is not working, said a spokeswoman for the French World Cup Organising Committee, Segolene Valentin.8220;There are lot of travel agents that sold tickets they didn8217;t have, never had and knew they never had..