England fans heading to South Africa for next summer's World Cup finals have been warned that they could be housed next to lions due to the shortage of hotel places!

South Africa will be swamped come June 11th with hundreds of thousands of football fans set to descend on the country for the World Cup finals, with the England faithful expected in their droves.

However, World Cup organisers are concerned that there is not enough accommodation to house all of the travelling fans, with the lack of accommodation forcing co-ordinators to considering using country park reserves!

One possible destination which has been mooted is the infamous Shamwari reserve which holds a wide range of flesh-eating beasts such as leopards and of course the 'Kings of the Jungle' - lions.

Seemingly unperturbed by the prospect of placing Three Lions fans alongside, well, lions, the 2010 accommodation co-ordinator for Port Elizabeth (where England face Slovenia on June 23rd) Errol Heyns assured that there is nothing to worry about!

"We will extend the number of beds in the city but we have about 20 game reserves within driving distance which they can also use," he told The Sun.

"The English are the best World Cup travellers, we look forward to welcoming them!" he added nonchalantly.

Heyns also admitted that the over-influx of England fans will put a strain on resources and placement options.

"At the moment we have 6,672 rooms available in the city which equates to 15,874 beds, but we plan to extend that," he said.

"Private homeowners will be leasing accommodation and we will turn some of the schooling facilities into hostels."

ExtraFootie can just see next summer's biggest headline: "Two drunk England fans eaten by lions!" Is anyone taking bets?