Fancy a World Cup ticket? Then just head for the Far East - FIFA are giving thousands of them away.

One stumbling block is that you have to be at school or a young footballer to qualify - so half of England's squad might yet be eligible.

But red-faced FIFA bosses have been shamed into action by the sight of a sea of empty seats at most World Cup games thus far.

In a classic footballing version of failing to organise a booze-up in a brewery, FIFA's ticketing arrangements for the finals have collapsed into chaos. Thousands of fans who have bought tickets have not received them. High prices have led to pitiful sales in some countries, including hotbeds such as Spain.

Supporters trying to obtain tickets over the Internet have been frustrated by the continual crashing of the FIFA website.

And at a time when FIFA can ill-afford to turn away spectators, a German woman was barred from taking her eight-month-old baby into Saturday's game with Saudi Arabia because she did not have a ticket for the child!

Around 7,000 seats will be left empty in Sapporo on Friday for England's game with Argentina because, according to FIFA, the views from certain parts of the stadium are not good enough.

Admittedly, Sunday's Paraguay v South Africa match hardly set the pulse racing among neutrals. But one would have expected more than 32,300 to attend the game in Busan's 53,800-capacity stadium.

This is the latest in a long line of disasters to befall football's debt-ridden governing body, who have called a crisis meeting to discuss ways round the problem.

Che-min Rim, spokesman for the Korean organising committee, said: "We need to have a detailed discussion with FIFA about how to manage the empty seats and whether we can give them to children, high school footballers, servicemen or volunteers."

FIFA communications director Keith Cooper said: "The ticketing co-ordinator from FIFA, John Doviken, has travelled to Japan with the intention of co-ordinating four-party discussions.

"But we have to be realistic about this. There have been plenty of World Cup matches in the past where matches were not sold out. Some matches are more attractive than others." While British-based company Byrom has come in for criticism for its inadequate distribution of tickets, Japanese organisers have attempted to put the blame on to FIFA.

Spokesman Yukiko Koike said: "We were told that unsold overseas tickets would be sent to us for sale in Japan, so we regret that they were not." The two host nations' governments have even intervened, and Korean official Shin Jung-Sik warned: "OWOC is considering a strong protest to FIFA and Byrom as well as a possible damages suit against Byrom."