Ticket prices soar as 10,000 desperate to be at semi-final
THOUSANDS of England football fans are desperately scrambling to get to Moscow for the World Cup semi-final showdown against Croatia.
The Three Lions are hoping to reach the final for the first time since 1966 on Wednesday night after Saturday’s comfortable 2-0 win over Sweden.
Last night, up to 10,000 supporters were trying to secure flights, accommodation, visas and tickets as prices escalated dramatically.
Organisers revealed hotel rooms are still available because fans of other major footballing nations including Germany, Brazil, Argentina and Spain have cancelled their reservations and sold their tickets after their teams failed to progress through the tournament.
But ticket touts are continuing to cash in on the clamour.
Secondary selling site Ticombo was offering Category 1 £789 seats for sale for £4,256. Category 3 seats – which were on sale via Fifa for £326 – were going for more than £1,000 on social media yesterday.
Viagogo – which is being sued by Fifa over alleged illegal ticket resales – had seats available for more than £1,000.
Fans are taking advantage of a loophole to travel to Russia.
Goosebumps
They need either a visa to enter the country or a special World Cup Fan ID, introduced by Russian authorities.
But the visa will take too long to process while a Fan ID was thought to be only obtainable accompanied by a ticket bought in advance.
But supporters have discovered they can get the Fan ID simply by submitting online a ticket stub number for any World Cup match, including ones past.
Kevin Miles, chief executive of the Football Supporters’ Federation, said: “Getting the Fan ID is no longer the issue. Fans have posted their tickets on social media and that’s enough to use that to obtain the Fan ID.”
A Fifa spokesman said: “Fans have the opportunity to purchase and offer their tickets for resale on www.FIFA.com/tickets.
“So far, more than 95,000 tickets have been resold through Fifa. Hence, fans interested in attending the semi-final match between Croatia and England are encouraged to check.”
Support back home is boosting the team as they prepare for the biggest England match for a generation. Defender Kieran Trippier, one of England’s stand-out performers this tournament, said the team has been inspired by fans.
He revealed: “It gives you goosebumps just to see how happy they are with how we are doing. We just want to keep on improving, stick together as a team and give more moments like that, they are special moments.
“It feels amazing – growing up and watching England – to be a part of it with the lads...it is an amazing achievement from everyone here and we can’t wait to get going against Croatia.”
Trippier said the squad were enjoying watching videos of fans.
“Seeing the fans back home on social media...we love the support off the fans and we just want to do as well as we can as team and hopefully do them proud,” he said.
“Obviously, you hear the song [Football’s Coming Home] all the time, it is stuck in your head because we are watching all the videos, it is exciting times and I’m loving every video we see from back home. Everyone comes together,
we want to keep putting in performances to make them proud, do as well as we can and achieve great things and we want to make our own history.
“To see the fans, all the videos and how emotional it is to them, we want to do so well and make them celebrate even more.”
Midfielder Dele Alli said: “It’s all about the experience. We’ve been playing well, we’re learning and we’re all enjoying it.
“We’ve seen the videos from back home and it seems like the country is really coming together so we’re happy to have that influence.
“The semi-final of a World Cup is not an easy game but it’s a game we feel we are ready for. We’re confident but we know it’s going to be difficult.
“But the way the tournament is going so far, whoever we come up against, we feel confident we’re going to win. And we have to be like that, I think, if we are going to get in the final, so we’ll have to perform well and play well.”
Searches for “flights to Moscow” rocketed by 1,000 per cent after Saturday’s quarter-final victory over Sweden, while BA reported a 700 per cent increase in flight searches in the past five days.
Direct flights from London to Moscow on Tuesday, returning on Thursday, cost £2,690, according to flight comparison website Skyscanner.
Complicated routes involving stopovers in cities such as Warsaw, Poland, were available for just £304 but could take as long as 23 hours.
Friends Nigel Holder and Larry McNulty began the next leg of their epic journey across Russia in a camper van yesterday. The two building contractors left their homes in Cheltenham last month and are driving 20 hours from Samara, where England defeated Sweden, to Moscow. But they are yet to buy tickets. Nigel said: “If anyone’s got any tickets out there, we’re desperate.”
Mr McNulty said: “It’s an adventure. We don’t know how long we’re going to be here and we’re just making the most of it.”
Many of the tickets which emerged for sale yesterday are believed to have been conditional tickets bought by Russian fans before their defeat to Croatia later on Saturday night.
England’s most capped player, Peter Shilton, said manager Gareth Southgate was right to allow the team to view videos of wild celebrations back home.
He said: “It’s quite strange for me to witness all the hype and the crowds and how excited they are because that’s what it must have been [like] in Italia 90 when we got to the semis but we didn’t know that over there.
“I think Gareth Southgate’s letting the team see one or two clips of the fans and that’s good because it wasn’t until we’d got home the enormity of what we’ve achieved. It’s good the players understand it’s a big moment for the country.”