Greek police catch 97 people with forged tickets

ATHENS, May 23 (Reuters) Greek police today arrested 97 people for possessing or selling forged tickets for the Champions League final between AC Milan and Liverpool.

A group of 91 fans -- mostly British -- attempted to pass the security perimeters around the Olympic Stadium hours before the start of the match but were found to hold forged tickets and were arrested on the spot, police said.

Another six people -- four Norwegians, a Pole and a Greek -- were caught in central Athens trying to sell some of the 43 tickets stolen from a UEFA hotel room earlier in the week. Hotel cameras had also recorded them during the theft, police said.

European soccer's governing body had said the tickets were marked for VIPs and could not be sold on.

Police said they had orders from the public prosecutor to take testimony from those arrested trying to enter the stadium with forged tickets and release them later.

More than 50,000 Italian and English fans have arrived in Athens for the final, many of them without tickets. Black-market prices for match tickets have soared to more than 5,000 euros (,727) for a single ticket.

Police in riot gear also arrested about 30 people without tickets who jumped the fence of the stadium before the start of the match.

Police had earlier arrests a 28-year-old Briton for selling 50 forged final tickets to an Italian travel agent for 58,000 euros.

Two French men were caught as they tried to sell two tickets at well above their face value to a group of British fans on a central Athens street. Police said they were charging 600 euros for each 140-euro ticket.

''The British man (who had sold the 50 tickets) was arrested yesterday in Athens,'' police spokesman Panagiotis Stathis said.

The man had sold 50 forged tickets over two days on Monday and Tuesday before being arrested in central Syntagma Square and was now facing charges of forgery and fraud, police said in a statement.

Greek Football Federation officials were called in to examine the tickets and ruled that they were fakes.

''He will be taken to an Athens prosecutor today,'' the statement said.

REUTERS DKS PM0131