England Fans

England Fans is the Football Association's official fan club. The only way to buy tickets for England's away games is to join England Fans, which I did at the start of this World Cup campaign two summers ago. Coughing up ₤70 for the two-year World Cup campaign entitles fans to apply for tickets for England away games. They throw in a not-so-nifty pen too. No discounts on tickets mind you. Merely the privilege of being able to apply for away tickets at full price. The idea is to keep hooligans away from games, as fans must submit passport details which are checked against some big-brother database of convicted hooligans. Usually applications for England away games are over-subscribed, such is the demand to follow England away. A ballot then takes place to determine who gets tickets. Rather like the players, every time fans attend a home game they get a cap; away games attract two caps. Thus there is a league table of 'cappers' and the more caps one has, the greater the chance of getting those difficult to obtain tickets as the ballot is weighted to reward the more loyal fans. However, for South Africa, so few England fans are travelling compared to previous tournaments, there was no need for a ballot as tickets were under-subscribed.

I have recently renewed my membership for the upcoming Euro 2012 campaign, receiving a ₤10 discount -- may be I can now afford to use the extortionately priced park & ride system in South Africa at least once now (more on that in later entry) -- because I did so early. Thus I'll have the privilege of applying for tickets for our games over the next year or so in the following beautiful locations: Montenegro, Bulgaria, Switzerland and the 'keep your passport at home' trip to Wales.