After watching each World Cup since 1998, I will finally be old enough to go to South Africa. I am 17 now and will be 21 then. I have no idea how attending WCs works because it seems like it would be a giant mess. I am a fan of Argentina, and would want to see their games. Are there special team packages that allow you to buy tickets to their games? How does this work? Also, the WC is spread out over the whole country, so it would be quite expensive to travel around and follow my team, so is it just going to be an expensive thing, or do you usually only stay in one place and see the games that are held there? I suspect that flight prices will be sky high (no pun intended) due to the demand for flights to South Africa? Also hotels would have to be exremely expensive as well. Would anyone be able to give me an estimated cost to see as may ARG games as possible? I would greatly appreciate this, as I have never been to a WC, and this information is hard to find. Thanks
There were several threads about how people set up their trips to Germany for the past World Cup in the USA Mens forum, you might want to browse through there and you could find some stuff.
There's lots of info about the tickets for WC2006 at fifaworldcup.com Some of it is quite confusing by now though, because there were several phases of ticket sales and some of the info was updated as they went along. But amongst it you will see Team Specific Tickets (TSTs). The cheapest TST was a TST-3, this would get you into your team's 3 group games. A TST-4 would cost more, and also get you into the second round game. A TST-7 would get you into all of your teams 7 games all the way to the final. If your team got eliminated before your TST ran out, you'd get to watch the team which knocked yours out instead. But...no idea if it will work like this for 2010.
Soccer World Cup 2010 is going to be huge. It'll also be my first one. No idea what the prices will be but here's a page about flights to South Africa.
Haha simular to my situation. Ive been watching since 1998, my first ever soccer memory is Dennis Bergkamp knocking Argentina out with his 89" stunner , and, at 17, I also feel like im old enough to go to my first tornament. The thing is, I don't want to wait until Africa2010 so i'm planning to go to Euro08. Ive been saving my arse off since WC06. That ticket thing sounds good, I want to get one that takes my team all the way to the final, but it takes faith in your team lol. Well I think Holland can do it so ill get that TST-7, or 6 it will probly be for Euro. Tickets go on sale March 1, but im not sure how it all works. I think you have to apply and then you might not get tickets still, i'm not sure. Ill have to ask around here soon I guess.
If they have TST tickets for Euro 2008 there will be many thousands of people applying for Holland TSTs and probably only a few hundred available. Good luck!
people do their world cup trips in all different ways, but most just like to follow their teams. the TST thing has been around a while and seems to be popular, so FIFA will likely offer that again. you might try the argentine football association regarding tickets since they should get an allocation of argentina specific tickets. in fact, this is maybe the best way to sit with other argentina fans. as for travel, yeah, plane ticket cost may be high as carriers likely will need to add capacity for the cup, plus sa is kinda far from the usual high air traffic areas. for lodging, well, i've seen people camp at world cups with tents. i've also seen "world cup camps" of short term industrial housing in germany (in warehouses or something). and of course there is everything from youth hostels to 4 star hotels, and everything in between. you should definitely consider safety if you go ultra low cost though. there are tons of threads on that here too.
i have no idea how things will be for euro 2008, but if you do a search on sleeper you might get a leg up.
Usual sort of stuff - your personal details, how you're going to pay, what matches (or TST) you want, what category tickets, whether you'd settle for worse tickets. Anything in particular you were concerned about?
I was sort of concerned about how I live in Australia, so maybe that would deter my chances. Also because i'm only 17 atm.
im from Australia and attended Germany 2006 with TST-7 Category 3 Australia Tickets. whole trip cost $8,000 (Australian dollars).
The ticket lottery is just a lottery, no problem there. But I expect you'd need to be 18 to apply - I see that was the case for WC2006.
Damn. What if my dad applied and brought the tickets? I know (heard) that in Europe your name is on the tickets and you need to show ID at the turnstyles or whatever, so is there any way for me to a get a TST ticket under 18? Would my dad have to buy them, then apply for a name change on the tickets? Its looking more and more like i'll be watching on the big screen on the streets of Vienna when Huntelaar kicks the winning goal against Germany in the final. But I'll keep looking, there must be a way for me to get a TST ticket. Thanks, thats helpful seems how Austria and Switz are basicly same price flight as Germany. AU$8k is around what I assumed the price would be at. So you must have attended the final?
yeah 1 match in each round Australia v Japan Australia v Brazil Australia v Croatia Australia v Italy Italy v Ukraine Italy v Germany Italy v France
Maybe something like that, but we'll have to see what the deal is. I expect ID won't be such an issue as for Germany (and even there, I personally didn't see anything happen; I never got asked for ID and various friends of mine had no trouble getting into a few matches with tickets that weren't theirs). But, the thing is, I haven't seen any mention of TSTs for Euro2008 yet. Perhaps there won't be any? Or, only via the national Football Association?
i'm pretty sure the deal in germany was this; if your ticket was in good shape and opened the electronic automatic turnstile, you got in no problem. no one checked anything. BUT if for whatever reason your ticket did not open the turnstile (like the ticket was damaged or bent etc), THEN you needed your passport in order to get a replacement ticket that would open the turnstile. and of course the damaged ticket must have been in your name in the first place for you to get a replacement ticket. i heard stories of people with tickets of complete strangers getting in with no problem simply because the ticket opened the turnstile. on the other hand, if you had a 100% legitimate ticket, but it couldn't open the turnstile, if you had no passport, you were out of luck. fwiw, there were may people on these boards who said that no one checked tickets at euro2004, and they got in fine with tickets bought on the streets from complete strangers with bogus names. of course, every tournament is different.
that info isnt entirely correct. there were general yellow shirted employees who let you through the turnstiles. then there were a couple of orange shirted employees who just randomly selected people, before they got to the turnstile, and asked them for their pastport. So it wasnt just if the ticket didnt open the turnstile it was also a random pick before that.
I never observed any random people being picked out at the games I attended. At each game it was pretty much a ticket check at the outer access point, a body search at the next access point, then a ticket scan at the last access point and then you were in.
I didn't see anyone having I.D. checked at WC 2006. I don't know anyone who saw any I.D. checks. If it happened at all it was few and far between.