select a team ---------- Europe: Belgium Croatia Denmark England France Germany Ireland Italy Poland Portugal Russia Slovenia Spain Sweden Turkey ---------- South America: Argentina Brazil Ecuador Paraguay Uruguay ---------- Africa: Cameroon Nigeria Senegal South Africa Tunisia ---------- Asia: China Japan Saudi Arabia South Korea ---------- CONCACAF: Costa Rica Mexico United States     Main page    Schedule    Stadiums

Ticket foul puts Taiwan in World Cup finals

The Chinese national team -- not to be confused with their less-esteemed rivals across the Taiwan Strait

BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Chinese mainlanders could have been excused for thinking their neighbours across the Taiwan Strait had snuck into the World Cup ahead of them when tickets to the event arrived in Beijing.

A consignment of 15,000 tickets for China's matches in South Korea were mistakenly printed with the team listed as Republic of China -- the name used for Taiwan by its government.

The printing error is the latest in a long list of ticketing dilemmas to have confronted World Cup organizers.

A report in Hong Kong's South China Morning Post said the British company that printed the tickets had apologized and reprinted them at its own expense within 24 hours of the mistake being realized.

The new tickets, bearing the name People's Republic of China, have arrived in Beijing for distribution to fans.

WORLD CUP SPECIAL News and views from South Korea and Japan

China share a group with four-time World Cup winners Brazil, Turkey and Costa Rica in the tournament.

Manchester-based Byrom Inc is responsible for producing the 3.2 million World Cup tickets. It experienced data production problems that led to delays in printing the tickets, causing some panic among World Cup organizers in South Korea and Japan.

At one point earlier this month, Japan's organizing committee said it would consider printing the tickets locally if delays were not overcome.

The last batch of World Cup tickets finally arrived in Japan one month late and less than a week before the start of the tournament.

The delays have hindered anti-hooligan measures that were to have been put in place.