I would also like to add that I was in France DURING the '98 Cup (including during the final), but sadly didn't go to a match. It was my first time in Europe; 16 years old.
Very impressive and SA must have been bonkers with 24 matches. Did you go to a game at every venue for that one?
Very impressive! What would you guys say is your ideal balance of matches/places/days? Or what is a priority for you at a World Cup?
Of my 8 Wcs I average only about 5 games a tournament with the most Germany 7 games and least Spain 2 games. Part of the joy is seeing as much of a country that I would never normally visit and whilst in SA a Mexican asked me what i would really like to do and it was 6 games in four different stadiums staying nearly a week in three different cities. This was what happened in Brazil and ironically has happened in the planning for Russia. Moscow, SP & Sochi for 6 games.
Th excitement of the World Cup is the cultural exchange with people in the host country and likeminded footballing fans from other nations supporting their teams. I’ve averaged 5-6 games in the last e world cups. Germany 2006 - very easy to travel around due to great transportation and physical proximity of venues South Africa 2010 - based myself in J’Burg and travelled to 4 other venues (Rustenburg, Polokwane, Pretoria and a crazy 12hr return drive to Blomfontain to watch England v Germany) Brazil 2014 - I took a punt on a venue ticket and had the best time of my life in one of the liveliest, vibrant, energetic cities in the world: Salvador de Bahia (I’ve been back 4 times since that WC because I loved te place so much) Russia 2018 - planning to hit 5 games in Moscow, Nizhny, Kazan and Samara. I tend to spend 3 weeks in total at each World Cup and always catch te group stages (such a buzz everywhere) and R16. Sadly I have no intention of attending Qatar 2022.
Priority is following my team...once they get eliminated (every R16 since I've been alive in my case) ... then who cares... I can barely watch the rest of the tournament...
I have fond memories of World Cup 94. My user icon is me during one of Brazil's games at Stanford Stadium. It was awesome time to be a kid then. The hype in Palo Alto was crazy and I was lucky that Brazil was based there! I also remember eating at Round Table Pizza. I was playing the Street Fighter arcade game and in walks Carlos Valderrama! So cool! Everyone was awestruck. He signed a random had I was wearing and then ordered a Hawaiian pizza. I would learn years later that that's the most popular pizza in Colombia.
I did not see matches at the Rustenburg and Mbombela venues. I did make up on those during the African Cup of Nations in 2013. I missed three match-days, however managed two matches in a day on two occasions (Johannesburg and Polokwane) and (Bloemfontein and Johannesburg). It was manic. I recall going for a beer at halftime in a match in Cape Town and having a complete brainfreeze on where I was, seat, stadium etc. I had a call a mate to guide me back to the seat! Also with so many rental cars it was difficult to keep track of which one on the particular day! 71 WC 2010 South Africa 11-Jun-10 Cape Town Group 64100 Uruguay France 0-0 72 WC 2010 South Africa 12-Jun-10 Johannesburg (Ellis Park) Group 55686 Argentina Nigeria 1-0 73 WC 2010 South Africa 13-Jun-10 Pretoria Group 38883 Serbia Ghana 0-1 74 WC 2010 South Africa 14-Jun-10 Cape Town Group 62869 Italy Paraguay 1-1 75 WC 2010 South Africa 16-Jun-10 Pretoria Group 42658 South Africa Uruguay 0-3 76 WC 2010 South Africa 17-Jun-10 J.burg (SoccerC) Group 82174 Argentina South Korea 4-1 77 WC 2010 South Africa 17-Jun-10 Polokwane Group 35370 France Mexico 0-2 78 WC 2010 South Africa 18-Jun-10 Cape Town Group 64100 England Algeria 0-0 79 WC 2010 South Africa 19-Jun-10 Pretoria Group 38074 Cameroon Denmark 1-2 80 WC 2010 South Africa 20-Jun-10 Bloemfontein Group 26643 Slovakia Paraguay 0-2 81 WC 2010 South Africa 20-Jun-10 Johannesburg (SC) Group 84445 Brazil Ivory Coast 3-1 82 WC 2010 South Africa 21-Jun-10 Cape Town Group 63644 Portugal North Korea 7-0 83 WC 2010 South Africa 22-Jun-10 Polokwane Group 38891 Greece Argentina 0-2 84 WC 2010 South Africa 23-Jun-10 Johannesburg (SC) Group 83391 Ghana Germany 0-1 85 WC 2010 South Africa 24-Jun-10 Cape Town Group 63093 Cameroon Netherlands 1-2 86 WC 2010 South Africa 26-Jun-10 Port Elizabeth 2R 30597 Uruguay South Korea 2-1 87 WC 2010 South Africa 27-Jun-10 Johannesburg (SC) 2R 84377 Argentina Mexico 3-1 88 WC 2010 South Africa 28-Jun-10 Durban 2R 61962 Netherlands Slovakia 2-1 89 WC 2010 South Africa 29-Jun-10 Cape Town 2R 62995 Spain Portugal 1-0 90 WC 2010 South Africa 2-Jul-10 Port Elizabeth QF 40186 Netherlands Brazil 2-1 91 WC 2010 South Africa 3-Jul-10 Cape Town QF 64100 Argentina Germany 0-4 92 WC 2010 South Africa 6-Jul-10 Cape Town SF 62479 Uruguay Netherlands 2-3 93 WC 2010 South Africa 7-Jul-10 Durban SF 60960 Germany Spain 0-1 94 WC 2010 South Africa 11-Jul-10 Johannesburg (SC) Final 84490 Netherlands Spain 0-1 Apart from the five World Cup's attended I have also been the the following: UEFA 1996 England: 9 matches UEFA 2000 Netherlands/ Belgium: 5 UEFA 2004: Portugal: 14 UEFA 2012: Ukraine 6 UEFA 2016: France 17 Asian Cup Qatar 2011: 4 Copa America Argentina 2011: 4 FIFA Confederations Cup 2009 South Africa: 1 Africa Cup of Nations: South Africa 2013: 10 Championship of African Nations (CHAN) South Africa 2014: 7 Summary: 15 tournaments 155 matches 74 nations 8 finals
Each day of a tournament brings a dizzy, infectious vibe of celebration, joie de vivre, interaction and I agree cultural exchange. It is intoxicating and addictive, an intense but brief splash of carefree unbridled enjoyment and fun. I try to spend the entire tournament in the country, arranging matches around the high density venues (e.g. Moscow/ Rio/ Paris) but allowing for travel to explore the football, the culture and experience of other cities. Russia (St Petersburg, Nizhny, Kazan and Sochi) France (Lyon, St Etienne, Lille, Marseille)
This really is completely bonkers but amazingly commendable in so many aspects. I remember in Washington sitting next to someone who said he was seeing 17 matches and I thought he was mad but 24 is mad! How many are you going to do in Russia and are you going to the disgrace of 2022? Fear mine looks embarrassing in comparison Italy 1980 (Euro) - 1 (Had 5 tickets but went home after being teargassed) Spain 1982 -2 Mexico 1986 -6 USA 1994 - 4 France 1998 - 6 Korea 2002 - 5 Germany 2006 - 7 SA 2010 - 5 Brazil - 6 Russia - 6?
You have an impressive range from Spain and Mexico to Korea 2002 which I regretfully missed out on. Qatar 2022 is an absolute travesty. I was curious and spent a week at the Asian Cup in January 2013. There is no football heritage or culture. The organisational abilities were atrocious. At the Japan-Australia final there were no stewards, friends of those connected sheiks were allowed into the stadium on the basis of a email printout. Congestion in the stairwells and bottlenecks in the stadium led to the authorities shutting out genuine fans who arrived in the last half hour before kickoff. The gridlock around the stadium was palpable, transport inadequate, the heavy policing etc the portents of what is to come. Things will probably but the odious award of a World Cup to a country with gross human rights violations for filthy lucre will pervade the air. In Russia, I am hoping to see around 16 matches. I have about 8 match tickets for the first phase. I am hoping for good fortune in the second phase for the knockout stages. The Final ticket seems out of reach at present, but there is always hope! I am looking at Moscow as a base with travels to St Petersburg, Nizhny, a last 16 in Kazan and a QF in Sochi
Very impressive we will have to meet up in St Petersburg and swap stories,I think we’re around the same age,used to follow Everton home and away,mid seventies to mid eighties,happy days
When I was in Germany 2006, I met a guy who was going to something like 28 games: at least one on each match day plus three days when he was going to two matches. I was in the middle of a run of four games on four consecutive days at the time and was finding the moving around to be exhausting. I couldn't imagine keeping it up for the whole tournament. But in South Africa, there were 5 stadia that you could get to as a day trip by car if you were based near Jo'burg so it was much less tiring to see games on consecutive days because you didn't have to keep changing hotel. In any case, I like to make sure I leave myself enough time to see some of the host country. The few days I spent driving around Korea between games completely changed my picture of the country. In Brazil, I made side trips to the Pantanal and the Iquazu Falls and explored the regions near the host cities (e.g. Ouro Preto from Belo Horizonte) as much as possible. For Russia, I know I have games in Moscow, St Petersburg, Sochi, and Kaliningrad. There is plenty to see around the first two of those. I won't make final plans until I see which other games I get tickets to.
Franz and Sepp were traveling everywhere by helicopter as I recall. I met this guy on a train after a game. He'd obtained all his tickets from FIFA using friends and family to submit multiple applications. In Brazil, while waiting around at the airport in Brasilia, I met a large American family (husband, wife, kids, plus husband's brother and his family) who were all going to something like 20 matches. They claimed they'd had tickets to even more matches but had to give some back because they couldn't physically get to them. As I was wondering how they had managed to obtain so many tickets to so many matches, they told me they lived in Portland, Oregon, and it dawned on me: Portland is the U.S. base for Adidas.
I attended the match Brazil-Côte d'Ivoire during the 2010 FIFA World Cup in Soccer City, Johannesburg. I was invited by a friend. I'll never forget this moment.