The Football Supporters’ Federation said it hoped a loophole exposed in the Russian security service’s Fan ID system would encourage England fans without tickets to travel to Russia in support of Gareth Southgate’s side.

Fan IDs are being given to all supporters who have tickets to World Cup matches to allow them visa-free entry into the country. But the FSF managed to obtain a number of Fan IDs using the same ticket reference number, in effect beating the system and allowing in even those without tickets.

Fifa said data protection regulations prevented it from sharing with Russian authorities the details of fans who had bought tickets with the Russian authorities, which has resulted in a certain laxity in the system.

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Kevin Miles, chief executive of the FSF, hopes the loophole will encourage more supporters to fly to Russia for the knockout stages. “You can have a great time at the World Cup without a ticket The experience of the fans who have been out in Russia is clearly at variance with what the expectations of a lot of people had been before the tournament.”

The reason Fan IDs do not require a match ticket is because details from the sales system are not shared by Fifa with the Russian government because of data protection regulations. “In line with such policies Fifa doesn’t transfer any personal data of ticket customers to the Ministry of Mass Communications,” Fifa said in a statement. “Any personal data used in connection with the issuance of Fan IDs is collected and stored by the ministry itself without any involvement from Fifa. Fifa solely provides the ministry with ticket application IDs in an anonymised procedure, thus not sharing any personal data with the ministry.”

Authorities in Finland have intercepted a group of migrants with Fan IDs trying to enter the country, apparently after using Russia as a staging point on their journey to the European Union. Through the Fan ID Russian authorities will have records of personal information such as address and passport details, but less information than is generally required for a visa.