Sempre

Helping to organise my mate's stagger for the end of April. I think it's fair to say the Reeperbahm will take care of most of the weekend. Quite fancy going to a game though; Hamburg v Werder Bremen is scheduled the weekend we're going. Has anyone been before? I'm guessing from the website tickets can be bought pretty easily, but is there sections to avoid/go to. Looks like their safe standing sections are already sold out. I read the fixtures could be any time from Thursday-Monday and only get confirmed a month in advance. But of a if we go but then miss the game, but we're thinking about potentially getting a train to nearby Hannover if they were at home.

Might be thinking of Aberdeen fans when they played Sigma Olomouc back when McGhee was manager. Was a bit of bother then.

Out Wednesday via Paris, back Friday via Heathrow. Staying at the Three Crowns hotel. By the looks of the other thread a fair few Scotland fans staying there. First time in Prague. I'm fine for points, but one of our guys is joining when the new memberships open at beginning of March. Reckon he'll be fine for a ticket and first away point? He's sent the SSC a message but no reply yet.

Maybe mentioned already on this thread, but it's "launched" this month but isn't actually available in the shops until December.

I actually follow a fair bit of women's football and the standard is a lot higher than given credit for, and Scotland have a few handy players. They're top of their qualifying group and are going to stroll it. The top two in each group qualify, Scotland and Iceland are thumping everyone in it. By the time the two actually meet they'll likely have already qualified for the finals (which are in Holland for anyone thinking of a trip in 2017).

Yes, but I was answering the point that people in Aberdeen "shat it". Well more than double the amount of Glaswegians "shat it", so point the finger at them first.

Another solution could be to make Hampden smaller... http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/opinion/sport/record-fc-aberdeen-cunning-plan-5455065

Double the amount of people in Glasgow voted no than in Aberdeen.

If we were to build a new stadium from scratch and move it from Glasgow, it still has to be in a city big enough to host it. People who suggest Perth/Stirling (I'm not having a go at the poster above as I suspect he posted it in jest) don't take into account what a nightmare that would be. 50,000 fans descending on a small town - the train station is tiny, the roads within the town couldn't cope with the traffic, there's not even close to enough hotels to accommodate a sizeable away support and home fans who wished to stay overnight - which means you may have 5,000 England fans descending on the same tiny train station as Scotland fans. If you built the ground in the centre of town the roads would be blocked for hours getting home, and if built on the outskirts then you're going to need a hell of a car park or work out how to shuttle the thousands arriving by train. Ideally, it'd be in Dundee. It's a big enough city to cope (with the potential to grow further), it's fairly central which is handy for midweek games plus doubling up as a semi-final/final venue. It at least has an airport, albeit small. Can't actually remember how big the train station is. But, how would we fund a new ground? The SFA don't own Hampden so can't raise money by selling that, and I would doubt that the Scottish government would offer to pay for it rather than plough money into the NHS which would probably lose them voters. More likely, we'll redevelop Hampden on the cheap. Knock the two stands down behind the goal, hopefully build them similar to the "yellow wall" at Dortmund, and that'll be us. Or, someone get Donald Trump in a good mood and maybe he'll build one for us.

Enjoyed Lisbon, and Tuesday and Wednesday was great weather. If you took a walk away from the main tourists haunts you were getting some really cheap restaurants. The drug sellers really do let the place down though, and that's probably going to be my main memory of the place as we were constantly harrassed. I know it's not a crime to have a small bit of hash on you, but the police should criminalise selling to someone else or at least deal with it. Would put me off recommending it to others to be honest.

The first ones out got taxis. When they all left, I said to my mates it'll take them about 20 mins to drop the incumbents off and about 20 mins to get back, and then we'll see a stream of taxis arriving, so to just wait it out. That proved to be wrong. Well over an hour later with the rain now pishing down you barely saw a taxi, and the ones that did turn up seemed to be pre-booked by somebody. We took a few taxi numbers and tried phoning them to book but couldn't get an answer. In the end we took a walk down to the motorway and managed to flag one. Got back to Olhao to find everything was closing up. Found a small bar that was open, but only because it was a wake for a funeral during the day, though they were happy enough to let us sit in the corner and have a few drinks.

Agree with most of the points on this thread, and I would love to see members make some sort of stand to get prices down. However, sitting on 5 points, I'd be loathed to give them points up by quitting or boycotting, and I'm sure many members are the same. The SFA and SSC know this, and know most threats will be empty threats. In this campaign I didn't go to Georgia or Gibraltar home games due to the price, and missed Ireland at home too because made a choice between it and England as wasn't paying £90 for two games. Instead I went to four of the five away games which meant oddly I went to more away games than home. For £45 I was able to get a match ticket in Faro, a shared hotel room, a shared taxi to and from stadium and my train ticket to Lisbon! If the prices are similar this campaign I can see England being the only home game I go to. The rest I am quite happy to watch on TV. Home games v Slovakia, Slovenia and Malta are experiences I'm sure I can live without. Maybe fans should think about similar if the prices remain the same. Refuse to buy for home games (clearly an England boycott won't work because it could sell out twice over) but stay in the SSC if you're keen on going to away games. An empty Hampden for the first home game v Lithuania I'm sure would make a point.

Luton is always horrible, constantly making inane announcements every 15 minutes about not leaving your bags unattended too.

We're camped in Lisbon and considered not bothering with Faro and giving ourselves an extra two days in Lisbon. Would only have meant losing £19 on the train tickets and we could cancel the hotel. However today we've decided "f*ck it, let's go". Will be really disappointed if there's not a lot of changes though. Really hope Shinnie, Rhodes and Griffiths play.

Can Shinnie play right back? If so...... Gordon Shinnie Berra Hanley Robertson Morrison McArthur Dorrans Maloney Rhodes Griffths

On Good Morning Scotland, Hamish Husband mentioned there was a campaign to turn the away end at Wembley next year into a sea of yellow to recreate the old Wembley away days. Not seen it spoken about anywhere else.

You sure you're not mixing up the Poland game with something else, as it was definitely open to 0 pointers. I know this because 3 of us decided to go at the last minute, and one of the guys in our group was a 0 pointer. The other one was on 1 point at the time, while I had 2. We all got tickets through the SSC no bother, through the normal channel of going through the website during the normal sales period. Don't even think the Scotland end was sold out that night. (And to save confusion it's the qualifier I'm talking about, not the friendly.)

The pots thing is random. Scotland, should they qualify, are likely to be fourth seeds. However in the actual draw in sure they pick the team then pick whether they're pot 1, 2, 3 or 4 (only France know they're A1). So aye, you may as well just pick some random games and hope you strike lucky and get Scotland.

I had a cancelled flight with Easyjet coming back from Dortmund. They were a pain in the arse but if you keep at them they pay up eventually. Save all the receipts, ask hotel to give you a confirmation letter or a copy of your invoice, and be prepared to have to scan them (they won't accept photos, even though they look the same pretty much. They'll try to be awkward about it). You'll get hotel and any taxis to and from hotel as long as you have receipts.

So the song of the weekend in Dublin was:- F*** off James McCarthy Scotland's having a party We're gonna qualify, we're gonna qualify F*** off Aiden McGeady Scotland disnae need ye We're gonna qualify, we're gonna qualify

Bohemians game was brilliant, cranking bounce at all 3 goals. Terrific atmosphere the whole game.

The bouncer in the Norseman bar had a passport and sporran that someone had lost because he thought it was mine as apparently I looked similar to the fella in the passport photo. That was Friday night.

Bought one on Kitbag the other day, arrived in good time to take to Dublin Avoid campo retro. Cowboys.

On the 5.30pm(ish) Glasgow to Belfast City. Staying at a mate's in Bangor before heading to Dublin Friday.

The reviews of the site aren't particularly good, though glad to hear the poster above got his ticket okay.