The World Cup, being co-hosted by South Korea, kicks off on May 31 with holders France facing Senegal in the opening game in Seoul.

'There has been a delay in printing the tickets which, unfortunately, is beyond our control,' Japanese tournament organiser Junji Ogura told reporters. 'We are focusing all our energy on solving the problems and making sure fans get their tickets in time.'

Manchester-based Byrom Inc, the company responsible for producing the World Cup tickets and the official FIFA operating agent, has experienced data production failures that have led to the printing delays. 'We have dispatched a team to Manchester to help speed up the process. At this stage it is more important to get the tickets printed than pointing the finger and blaming people,' said JAWOC ticketing manager Shunichiro Mizono.

STILL TIME

Asked if JAWOC could be faced with a situation in which fans did not get their tickets before match day, Mizono said there was 'still time' to print and distribute the tickets, most of which were sold in the third round of domestic sales last month. However, JAWOC officials are bristling at the fact that around 100,000 tickets left unsold abroad are still up for grabs worldwide despite a FIFA promise that they would be given to JAWOC.

Japanese organisers are particularly upset that left-over tickets for first-round matches involving Japan are not available exclusively to home fans, given the massive demand for tickets throughout the country. 'We were under the impression that those tickets would be returned to JAWOC and we have complained to FIFA about it,' said Mizono. 'FIFA are responsible for ticketing and we feel that it has been handled very badly.'

Internet sales for unsold tickets abroad opened on Wednesday but were briefly halted by a printer error and access difficulties caused by too many people applying online at the same time. 'We had two glitches yesterday but we are in control of the system now. You can book and pick up your ticket in a few minutes,' said Ray Whelan, a consultant to the FIFA World Cup Ticketing Bureau in Tokyo.

Japan and South Korea were originally allocated half of the 3.15 million tickets for the World Cup, with the remaining 50 percent to be sold overseas. Japan quickly sold out but more than 250,000 tickets remain unsold in South Korea. World Cup tickets were identically priced in both countries despite the difference in living costs.