HUNDREDS of English schoolchildren returned home disappointed last night after falling victim to a World Cup ticket fraud.
The 350 children and 31 teachers from ten schools paid £399 for a “World Cup Experience” weekend, which included tickets to the Portugal-Iran game in Frankfurt. But they were told on arrival at their youth hostels in Germany that their travel agents had been defrauded by an internet ticketing agency and they would not be attending the game.
John McBride, sales director of the trip’s organiser, Activ4, said: “The children were devastated. We spent 48 hours looking for tickets for any game at the weekend but we could not do it. The Mayor of Cologne, the police, even the Portuguese team, tried to help but we were disappointed.”
Mr McBride said that he turned to the “tickets-for-all” website after his firm was let down by an official Fifa agent. His company has lost £54,000.
Rob Christopher, who organised the trip for Portchester School, Bournemouth, said: “The children and parents are obviously very upset and can’t understand why anyone would want to scam so many children.” Pupils at the school had to pay £100 deposit for the trip.
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A teacher from another school added: “We went to the theme park in Cologne instead.”