OXFORDSHIRE schoolchildren cheated out of World Cup tickets have been guaranteed seats for the quarter-finals after the intervention of the Primie Minister.

Eleven Banbury schoolchildren travelled all the way to Germany but left without seeing a match because of an international scam.

The youngsters, aged between 11 and 14 from Drayton School in Banbury, were left heartbroken when their tickets failed to turn up, despite paying £410 each.

They were among 380 British children caught in the same situation. When Tony Blair heard of their plight, he vowed to try to help them out.

And after talks with Fifa, the pupils have been guaranteed seats for the quarter-final matches, which take place on June 30 and July 1.

Craig Burrows, head of PE at Drayton School, said: "Obviously, the kids were absolutely gutted by what happened.

"But when we got back our story seemed to get a lot of Press coverage and Tony Blair got involved.

"A lot of the kids thought I was winding them up when I told them the news."

They do not yet know which match they have tickets for, but are hopeful of seeing England play.

Mr Burrows and colleague Jan Harding, also a PE teacher, accompanied the pupils to Germany last week. They thought they had tickets to see the Czech Republic play Ghana on Thursday in Cologne.

But things started to go wrong when they were told their tickets had been swapped to the Iran versus Portugal match on the same day. And then those tickets were not there when Activ4, the company which arranged the £410-a-head tour, went to collect them.

The school party will fly to Germany courtesy of British Airways.

Two people have been arrested on suspicion of obtaining money by deception in connection with the World Cup tickets scam.