foolhandy

A few weeks back I had an idea that it might be nice for us to go and watch England play at the new Wembley Stadium. I’ve looked at the fixture list and identified the match against Israel on the 8th September as a possible.

This is how you get a ticket :

a)  Register with the FA to get a FAN number and enter the ticket ballot for the right to buy a ticket for something in the region of £25-£55. This isn’t too bad, but you have to enter the ballot more than two months before the match (I missed it by three days) and it’s 1 FAN:1 ticket so if three friends (or a family) enter the draw it may be that only one of them gets the right to buy a ticket. You can apply in groups of up to five, but there’s no guarantee that you’ll be able to sit together so it’s not a lot of use to a family.

b) Join EnglandFans. If you join EnglandFans you can buy tickets with up to £5 off in the same way you might buy tickets in the normal way. Great! But the cost of joining EnglandFans is £45 per adult and £25 per child for a two year period of which we’re currently half-way through. The sweetener on this deal is this : “Remember too that The FA is a not-for-profit organisation and any surplus revenue generated from englandfans membership is invested in the game at all levels.” I don’t want to, and couldn’t afford, to go and see every England game for the next year but if I want to see just one match I still have to join EnglandFans. That means that for the three of us to see England play Israel next month it would cost around £200, and that doesn’t include travel, food and trimmings such as a programme.

c) Wait until there are 24 hours before the match and try and get one of the tickets remaining once the priority booking periods have been removed by the FA. I’ll put my plans for that weekend on hold until the Friday evening on the off chance then eh?

So that’s how to get to see England live. You either risk being allowed to buy a ticket without the rest of your family joining you, get ripped off by the FA in the name of philanthropy (and get to see a player who’ll earn more next week than I will in next five years - I wonder if he has to join EnglandPlayers before he pays to pull on the shirt?*), or keep a weekend free on the possibility that you might be able to get one of the last few tickets available.

Part of me feels that it’s the consumer that allows the FA to get away with this. If we didn’t show the willingness to jump through such hoops they’d stop creating them. Another part of me feels that the FA have a cheek moaning about ticket touts when they make it so difficult and expensive to buy tickets the official way. Mostly though I think it’s a shame that a game that started off as a group of men kicking a pig’s bladder around a field has turned into this monster.

* It may be of interest to note that if John Terry had to pay an equivalent percentage of his wages to play for England as I’d have to pay to watch he’d be coughing up £52000 for the privilege. Nice.