Organisers hand extra World Cup tickets to England fans

The announcement means that the FA will have a total of 14,000 tickets for the matches against Paraguay, Trinidad & Tobago and Sweden.

The tickets will be sold to members of the official England supporters' club, englandfans, rather than put on general sale.

However, that still means the FA has been allocated an average of fewer than 5,000 tickets for each match and there are 25,000 members of the supporters' club.

The FA chief executive, Brian Barwick, said: "This is great news for England fans and the result of intensive lobbying by the FA. The England team enjoys unrivalled travelling support and we were determined to do everything we could to increase our allocation for englandfans members.

"England supporters have made a hugely positive contribution to the last two major tournaments we have played in, and we look forward to a fantastic World Cup in Germany."

Sven Goran Eriksson's team play Paraguay in Frankfurt on 10 June, Trinidad & Tobago in Nuremberg on 15 June, and Sweden in Cologne on 20 June.

Portugal's Brazilian coach Luiz Felipe Scolari has stated that he has not been in contact with the Football Association about taking over Eriksson's role as England coach.

"I have had no contact with the English federation," he said. "At times conclusions are drawn which are not connected to the truth."

In an interview with the BBC last Sunday, Scolari said: "I know if I want to take over England I need to learn the language more."

Scolari, who led his native Brazil to their fifth World Cup in 2002, said that his desire to learn English had nothing to do with wanting to manage England. "In the interview, I said I wanted to learn English, just like I want to learn other languages to become a more educated person," Scolari said. "Just because I said I would learn English does not imply I have agreed anything with England.

"I have already rejected various invitations from many important clubs and I have already said 180 times that I am very happy in Portugal."