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World Cup has super tickets
PARIS (AP) -- World Cup officials have unveiled an example of the highly-sought tickets for the World Cup, and they claim they're impossible to forge.A ticket -- printed by the company that supplies bank note paper to 120 countries worldwide -- is a thick piece of blue and yellow rectangular paper.
Co-organizer Michel Platini said counterfeiters would be foiled by a special "lock" mechanism in the ticket, which also is featured in the country's state-of-the-art bank notes.
The tickets depict the earth surrounded by nine soccer balls, evoking planets in the galaxy.
They also feature a watermark of "Footix," the event mascot, layers of irridescent color impossible to photocopy, a hologram of France and the World Cup trophy, and special non-shiny paper. The tickets also bear the purchaser's name.
Organizers said about 40,000 tickets have been sent back by some small soccer associations. They go on sale Tuesday.
NEXT ROUNDS: Round of 16 || Quarter-finals || Semi-finals
GROUP A: Brazil, Morocco, Norway, Scotland
GROUP B: Austria, Cameroon, Chile, Italy
GROUP C: Denmark, France, Saudi Arabia, South Africa
GROUP D: Bulgaria, Nigeria, Paraguay, Spain
GROUP E: Belgium, Holland, Mexico, South Korea
GROUP F: Germany, Iran, United States, Yugoslavia
GROUP G: Colombia, England, Romania, Tunisia
GROUP H: Argentina, Croatia, Jamaica, Japan