German decorator Matthias Blume said Monday he had relaunched the bidding process for the name tags of the 32 World Cup finalists used in the televised draw after receiving bogus offers.
Blume, who found the slips of paper in a rubbish bag while cleaning up after the draw in Leipzig on December 9, said bidders must now register with passports before making offers.
"We had to cancel the auction because some of the bids were not serious," Blume told Reuters. "We've now taken steps to ensure there are only serious bids."
One bid of 120,000 euros ($142,400) turned out to be a prank, Blume said.
He said the seven-day auction for the orange and white slip of paper reading "Germany," hosts for the 2006 World Cup, started Monday and bids were at 15,000 euros.
Two further slips of paper would be offered each day, with "England" and "Australia" next in the internet auction on Tuesday. The auctions for the slips of paper would last 10 days, the 31-year-old said.
Soccer's governing body FIFA has challenged Blume's attempts to capitalize on the slips of paper.
"FIFA has sent a warning to the legal representatives of the person concerned and pointed out that this is a violation of FIFA's name rights and that the auction should be stopped," FIFA spokesman Andreas Herren said last week. "If that doesn't happen, we will have to look at further legal steps."
But Blume has hired a lawyer and said he was going ahead with the auction.
"The material was found in the rubbish bin by me and I'm the owner now," he said Monday.
No comments:
Post a Comment