Ticket problems continued as FIFA officials said...

Ticket problems continued as FIFA officials said England’s allocation for Tuesday’s game against Argentina will stand, despite efforts by British Sports Minister Tony Banks and the English Football Assn.

England received 2,049 tickets for the St. Etienne match--its smallest allocation to date--but Banks said England and Argentina should each have received 10,000 tickets.

FIFA communications director Keith Cooper said the ticket policy was set in 1995 and exceptions would not be made. “Anyone who had taken the trouble would have been able to read how this system worked . . . three years ago,” he said.

Cooper said it was impossible to predetermine which teams would be playing where in the second round or calculate demand for tickets at each of the venues.

“While there may be a huge demand from England, that would not be the case if it were Romania,” he said. “The only way to do this is the way it has been done.”