According to a Sky Sports report, FIFA has issued an advisory for England fans who are planning to go to Brazil and watch the games. According to the global soccer body, there has been a proliferation of fake tournament match tickets being sold in all the 12 official World Cup stadiums.
Speaking from Rio de Janeiro, chief news reporter Bryan Swanson said that ticket forgers had adopted a level of sophistication that makes it harder to spot fakes from the real ones. It has been discovered that around 50 fake tickets were purchased prior to Thursday's opening match between Brazil and Croatia in Sao Paulo. According to Swanson, it is expected that more fake tickets would be sold at grounds from Rio to Manaus.
He said, "Only when fans arrived at the stadium yesterday did they realize they were fakes because the chip in them did not work and they were unable to gain access to the ground. FIFA has warned fans to be careful when purchasing tickets in the Brazil as there are concerns that a number will be sold during the World Cup. And FIFA want to point out to the England supporters that the fakes currently in circulation are impossible to detect. To the human eye they look exactly the same as the genuine article and the message from the world governing body is that you should only be buying tickets from approved retailers."
FIFA marketing spokesman Thierry Weil has already acknowledged the problem, but said that the real tickets can never be copied. Urging fans to purchase the tickets legally, he said, "You look at this (fake) ticket and you have no doubt that this is a real ticket. You travel to Brazil, come to the turnstile in the stadium and that is when you will be rejected as the ticket does not have the chip. Even if there were a chip within the ticket it cannot be copied. It has some special function which clearly will reject you entering the stadium."
Fans could purchase tickets on FIFA's official website. TIME has said that FIFA will not be honoring resold tickets at all 12 venues.
