Ged Holmes, World Cup Ticketing Bureau director of marketing, said the problem was actually due to a delay in information coming from the Japanese Organising Committee following its ballot for the final allocation of 144,000 tickets for Japanese residents.

"Each of the tickets are individually printed with the fans name, to prevent them ending up on the black market," he said.

National media reports had used the tired excuse of blaming printing problems.

The FIFA World Cup Ticketing Bureau is one of two World Cup 2002 operating companies owned by Manchester-based Byrom Inc, which is handling ticket distribution.

Holmes declined to reveal the name of the printer, but Kalamazoo Security Print said it had not handled the job, while Bemrose Security Print business development director Andy Blundell declined to comment.

The majority of the total of 3.2m tournament tickets reached their buyers on time.

Story by Andy Scott