EagleTribune.com, North Andover, MA

It didn't belong to any team, actually. The trophy that arrived at the Claddagh Pub on Canal Street at 4:30 p.m. won't be awarded to anybody until 2010.

Representatives of the beverage company escorting the trophy told admirers at the pub they were looking at the very trophy the Italian soccer team was awarded on the field when it won the World Cup championship game July 9.

But just hours later, at 7 p.m., Anheuser-Busch came clean: It wasn't the right trophy.

"We apologize for any misunderstanding about the World Cup Winner's Trophy visit to the United States," Francine Katz, vice president of communications for the Budweiser brewer, said in a 7 p.m. statement. "We should have more clearly specified that this is a trophy that will be awarded to the team that wins the 2010 FIFA World Cup Tournament in South Africa and is not the trophy that was awarded to Italy in Germany this past July."

The World Cup trophy is a solid-gold, 11-pound trophy that is awarded to the winning team for a short period of time. This year, for example, the solid gold trophy stayed with the Italian team for one week after the team's victory, and was then returned to FIFA headquarters in Switzerland.

The gold-plated World Cup winner's trophy, meanwhile, is the one a team's organization is allowed to keep.

The actual FIFA World Cup trophy "cannot be won outright," according to FIFA's Web site.

"The World Cup winners retain it until the next tournament and are awarded a replica, gold-plated rather than solid gold," the Web site states.

The trophy that was making the rounds this week in Massachusetts is the gold-plated version that will be awarded to the winner in 2010.

Another trophy was in Rome, Italy, for viewing yesterday, according to the Italian Football Federation's Web site, but it was unclear which trophy it was - the real, solid gold trophy or the gold-plated winner's trophy.

The 2010 trophy that was in Lawrence is part of a tour sponsored by Tewksbury beverage distributor D.J. Reardon Co. It also made stops in Lowell.

That followed stops Tuesday along Hanover Street in the North End of Boston, where crowds lined up to pay $5 to have their photo taken with the trophy. That money went to charity, Katz said in her statement. Anheuser-Busch has now promised to match all money raised through the photos.

"We regret any embarrassment this caused civic leaders, residents of the Boston-area and our local wholesaler, August A. Busch & Co. and sales manager Nick Gregory," Katz wrote.

At the Claddagh Pub, a steady stream of soccer fans spent the afternoon viewing the trophy. Many lifted it, feeling its hefty weight and dispelling rumors that it was made of plastic. Everyone who stepped near the trophy was photographed, though nobody was charged for pictures.

Fernando Mancini of Methuen came to see the trophy even though rumors were swirling around yesterday morning that it was a fake. Mancini, who teaches eighth grade at Marsh Grammar School in Methuen, is a first-generation American, the son of Italian immigrants.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," he said. "I wore my jersey to school. I was so excited." Mancini attended with his uncle, Fernando Vattorre, who moved to Methuen from a town near Naples, Italy.

Pia Ferracin, a Florence, Italy, resident who is studying at UMass Lowell, also visited the trophy. Ferracin was in Italy when the team beat France to win the World Cup.

"It was crazy. Absolutely crazy. Fantastic," Ferracin said.

At that point, it had already been established that the trophy was not the solid gold World Cup trophy. But viewers, including Ferracin, were still under the impression that they were viewing the gold-plated replica awarded to Italy.

"That's the one that should go around," Ferracin said.

Crowds at the Claddagh Pub were much more tame than in Boston Wednesday, where soccer fans stood in line for hours to have their picture taken with the trophy. Boston Mayor Thomas Menino posed lifting the trophy that day. Yesterday, Menino issued a statement saying "if the trophy is anything but what was promised, I am deeply disappointed in the organizer, Anheuser-Busch, and their abuse of the city's trust."