The Department of Trade and Industry has launched an investigation into Great Portland Entertainments Limited after football fans hoping to go to the world's biggest sporting event complained they had paid for but not received tickets.

Great Portland, based in London's Regent Street, is understood to have received more than £2.4m to supply 40,000-plus tickets to England and Scotland fans.

The raid at the company's offices (Courtesy of Channel 4 Dispatches)

It remains unclear how the company could have got hold of so many tickets and it must now satisfy the courts that it actually has them.

Trading standards officers at Westminster Council raided the company's offices in London after being alerted by the French authorities.

They removed computer disks and documents relating to the sale of World Cup tickets.

Provisional liquidation

The DTI was granted an order by the High Court to wind up the company in the public interest.

Nigel Griffiths: "Fans have been let down"

The Consumer Affairs Minister, Nigel Griffiths, has launched a review of the business in an effort to determine how many tickets the group actually has available.

An Official Receiver has been appointed as a provisional liquidator for the company until the investigation into its financial affairs has been completed.

The High Court granted the order to wind up the company

A spokesman for the DTI said: "We became aware that the tickets had not been delivered by the dates promised and so we took action to stop the company trading.

"They were taking orders for tickets to all the England and Scotland matches, but the company was not an authorised supplier of World Cup tickets and the tickets have not materialised.

"We will not know if fans will get their money back until the Official Receiver has investigated the company."

In a statement from the English Football Association, officials said they strongly supported the actions of the DTI and expressed sympathy for fans who had not received their tickets.

Operators selling official World Cup tickets

They said they had warned supporters repeatedly in the run-up to the World Cup only to buy tickets from official agencies.

The distribution of World Cup tickets has overshadowed the build-up to the event in recent months.

A telephone hotline offering extra tickets was set up in April by the French organisers after complaints from football organisations that the original allocations were far too small.

The briefs were only sent out to fans two weeks ago and there have been concerns that unoffical agencies might try to take advantage of the situation and offer black market tickets for sale.

Tickets judgement due

A French court will announce on Friday whether it upholds a complaint by British MEPs that the ticketing arrangements for the tournament, which favour French fans, violate European legislation.

The Tribunal de Grand Instance, in Paris, is due to give its verdict at 1400 on the legal action brought by Graham Watson and 32 other MEPs against the French organisers, CFO.