FIFA in World Cup tickets warning

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FIFA is warning consumers to be wary of unauthorized ticket promotions ahead of next year's World Cup in Germany. It says that companies looking to boost their profile through promotional activities that offer FIFA World Cup match tickets as prizes are doing so despite the fact that many are not legitimate.

In a statement it said that "no tickets must not be transferred or used for advertising, sales or promotional purposes, or as a premium, give-away, competition or sweepstake prize, except where they are used in legitimate, authorized commercial activities by FIFA’s commercial affiliates".

Official Partners of the 2006 FIFA World Cup are adidas, Avaya, Anheuser-Busch, Coca-Cola, Continental, Deutsche Telekom, Emirates, Fujifilm, Gillette, Hyundai, MasterCard, McDonald’s, Philips, Toshiba, Yahoo! as well as the Official Suppliers within Germany - Deutsche Bahn, EnBW, Hamburg-Mannheimer, OBI, ODDSET and Postbank.

FIFA also warns that tickets obtained from illicit ticket promotions will be automatically subject to a possible cancellation and the ticket holder risks being refused entry to or expulsion from the stadium. FIFA is also taking steps to tackle forgeries. It says tickets will be equipped with new RFID chip technology, to make forgeries difficult to produce. In addition, match tickets will not be printed until a few weeks before the opening match in Munich on June 9.