EU rejects new ticket sales

 BRUSSELS (AP) -- The European Union says the French organizers of this summer's World Cup should sell all 160,000 unsold tickets to foreign fans and rejected as insufficient an offer of just 50,000 for foreign soccer federations.
 EU Competition Commissioner Karel Van Miert said Thursday all the remaining tickets should go outside France to compensate foreign fans who have lost out so far in the ticket share-out.
 "The system is not fair . . . There has been discrimination," Van Miert told the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.
 Under pressure from the EU and foreign soccer federations, the French organizers of soccer's greatest show offered Thursday to put some 110,000 contested tickets on the open market for French and foreign fans, but Van Miert said that was not enough.
 "We want them to be made available for purchase of citizens of the European Union outside France," Van Miert said. "There is no agreement."
 EU officials said they would meet again with the organizers next week to try to resolve the issue. Unless the organizing committee comes into line, it could face fines, warned Van Miert, the top EU official handling the tussle over tickets.
 He rejected the French argument that making too many tickets freely available internationally risked hooligan mayhem by creating an explosive mix of rival fans in the World Cup stadiums during the June 10-July 12 tournament.
 The 160,000 remaining seats represent only a small fraction of the total 2.5 million tickets for all 64 matches scheduled during the month-long tournament.
 But they are like gold dust for the estimated 17.5 million fans who have tried and failed to secure tickets.
 Fans in Canada, which failed to qualify for the finals, have ordered 6,050 tickets. They will find out later this month how much of that order will be filled.
 Furious soccer authorities from other participating countries say France compounded the ticket drought by reserving too many tickets exclusively to French fans, VIPs and corporate sponsors.
 They won't be placated by the latest French offer which will mean just a few hundred tickets per game.
 In the European Parliament, deputies from other EU nations with teams in the World Cup finals unleashed a barrage of criticism against the French organizers for discriminating against their fans. They demanded Van Miert impose fines.
 "Show the organizers the red card," demanded British deputy Graham Watson. "We are calling foul."
 Belgian euro-deputy Philippe De Coene focused his criticism on Michel Platini, former French midfield wizard and now co-president of the organizing committee.
 "They put themselves above and beyond European law. Platini may have been a good soccer player, he is not the Sun King," de Coene said. "Must we be happy with these crumbs from the table."