There are just two problems - the price, and the risk that you may not get what you pay for.

If your ticket application failed ...

Prices quoted on Internet message boards and by e-mail vary from around £125 for a standard first round match to £8,000 for premium seats at the final, according to several buyers and sellers.

Jeff Kurzner, an independent computer consultant and father of three soccer-loving children in Miami, said almost everyone with tickets to the final on July 12 appears to want to sell them at well above face value.

He said people were asking between £1,225 and £2,300, compared with official ticket prices of between £40 and £360.

... and you had no luck with the helpline ...

"There are tickets available in small numbers, two to 10 tickets with each broker, but the prices are firm," said Kurzner, whose hopes of attending the final with his nine-year-old son are rapidly fading.

First-round match tickets have a face value of about £15 to £37, but the going price for seats at the opening match between Brazil and Scotland was a minimum of about £245 and often much more on the Internet.

Internet trade is being fuelled by the shortage of tickets available through official channels - primarily national football associations such as the English FA and designated tour operators.

... hen this could be your final chance - at a price

An official package including flights would cost from £495 for a day trip to a first-round Scotland game with designated UK agent Gullivers Tours.

Tickets were not available without the package.

Not all those using Internet message boards such as wldcup.com or footballbooks.com are buying and selling - swapping is also big business.

"I would love to go and see England but I'm not a member of the FA, and that's the only legitimate way of getting tickets, and they've got very, very few," said one potential swapper - a project manager at a US bank in London.

"The majority of people can't go and see their team, and the only other way to get tickets is to do what the majority of people are doing on these bulletin boards."

Swaps are being arranged online

He said he was concerned about the practicalities of arranging the swap, but had arranged for a friend in France to meet face-to-face with the other party to hand over the tickets.

Others who were buying and selling were arranging to meet in France during the tournament itself to conduct their transactions, despite the risk of being cheated.

Unauthorised ticket sellers face yet another risk - that of hefty fines from French authorities if their tickets fall into the hands of trouble-makers.

Breaking the law

Soccer governing body FIFA said it was illegal for private individuals to sell tickets on the Internet, and anyone buying such tickets risked being refused entry because their name would not be on the ticket.

"The vast majority of tickets will have a name on them and identification checks will be carried out at the stadium," a FIFA spokesman said.

Will fans who buy cyber-tickets end up outside?

"If the name on the ticket doesn't match the name on the passport or the driving licence, then they won't be allowed access," he said.

The spokesman advised against buying unauthorised tickets but admitted it was impossible to control the sale of 2.5 million tickets - particularly since those sold over ticket hotlines might not have names printed on them.

"It's impossible to verify where every single ticket is going, it's logistically and reasonably not possible," he said.

The swapper at the US bank said he doubted many people with unauthorised tickets would be turned away.

"They're unlikely to refuse entry if you don't look like you're going to cause any trouble," he said. "If you keep your wits about you I'm sure you can get in."

"There's a hell of a lot of tickets out there that have been sold on. I really don't see logistically how the French police can turn away 30,000-odd people from the Stade de France."