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"It was painful for me to hear of the awful fraud the children had innocently fallen victim to," FIFA president Sepp Blatter said in a statement. "I am very happy that we found a solution." Blair asked FIFA to intervene after the children were turned away from matches on Saturday because their tickets had failed to materialise. The youngsters, aged 11 to 16, were due to watch the Czech Republic against Ghana game in Cologne, but just hours before kick-off, their tour operators discovered the alleged con by their ticket providers. They were then told to travel to Frankfurt for the Portugal game against Iran, but before they departed, they were told there were no tickets for this match either. The disappointed pupils from a school in Portsmouth, on the southern English coast, had paid between 379 and 399 pounds ($950 and $1,000) for the tour package. They returned home on Monday. According to the FIFA statement, British Sports Minister Richard Caborn confirmed that the children would be heading back to Germany and thanked the football body. FIFA did not say which matches the children would attend. (AFP)
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