World Cup Finals Draw

[ThistleWhistle]

10 minutes ago, Squirrelhumper said:

I'm the same. Really don't know if i could justify it in terms of money. 

Had it been somewhere like Japan Australia, South America etc then i wouldn't have thought twice. Qatar has no redeeming features.

Gonna be a strange feeling if i'm int he away end in Cardiff knowing i won't be going to Qatar if we qualify but the money is just off the scale and the trip sounds pish. 

I listened to bits of the TalkSport stuff last week hoping I was missing something but it just sounds absolutely pish – there’s a flea market and loads of dear fake shit in a desert.  You might be able to have a beer in a hotel but the sponsors seem to get all those or in a fan park for the riff raff well out of the way where it'll be stupid dear for water down pish where anyone excitable risks police intervention. 

It genuinely feels like they don’t want minks and tinks to visit – it’ll look really shit if they have bling bling stadia not even half full but not that sure they’re even bothered.

They've sold 800k in the first waive mainly to locals and no idea if that is any good or not but over 64 games that's about c.12,500 plus whatever sponsors take so there must be loads left yet.  Wouldn't be surprised if the migrant workforce get tickets to games like Serbia v Cameroon just to put bums on seats.  

[McTeeko]

5 hours ago, Squirrelhumper said:

I'm the same. Really don't know if i could justify it in terms of money. 

Had it been somewhere like Japan Australia, South America etc then i wouldn't have thought twice. Qatar has no redeeming features.

Gonna be a strange feeling if i'm int he away end in Cardiff knowing i won't be going to Qatar if we qualify but the money is just off the scale and the trip sounds pish. 

That’s my take on it all too. I know there are travel agents looking to put on day trips from Scotland (fly out overnight, day in Qatar, fly back overnight). No idea of the cost of this but it’s a potential option of seeing Scotland in a WC without maxing out the credit card. 

Edited April 4, 2022 by McTeeko

[Caledonian Craig]

2 minutes ago, McTeeko said:

That’s my take on it all too. I know there are travel agents looking to put on day trips from Scotland (fly out overnight, day in Qatar), fly back overnight. No idea of the cost of this but it’s a potential option of seeing Scotland in a WC without maxing out the credit card. 

Hmm sounds like a plan but not one that will be met with co-operation or encouragement from Qatar government. They will be hoping for massive influx of supporters staying for days. I reckon they'd move to put a kybosh on such schemes by putting huge taxes on air companies/travel agents running such trips.

[McTeeko]

3 minutes ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Hmm sounds like a plan but not one that will be met with co-operation or encouragement from Qatar government. They will be hoping for massive influx of supporters staying for days. I reckon they'd move to put a kybosh on such schemes by putting huge taxes on air companies/travel agents running such trips.

Maybe, but it’s either that (day trips) or half empty stadiums if the reports are true going by the potential costs (£500 a night for a cabin on a cruise ship in the docks?) 🥺

[Squirrelhumper]

48 minutes ago, McTeeko said:

That’s my take on it all too. I know there are travel agents looking to put on day trips from Scotland (fly out overnight, day in Qatar, fly back overnight). No idea of the cost of this but it’s a potential option of seeing Scotland in a WC without maxing out the credit card. 

Aye, that would be something i'd do purely so i could see us at a WC. 

Why couldn't we just qualify for Germany 06! 

[tartanb]

McTeeko

The cruise ships are definitely expensive, as is everything else in Qatar is going to be. The price you mentioned (£500) was for a 2 bed cabin on the 5 star ship and included full board for 2 people, whatever that is. It was quite a hefty uplift over the B&B price on the same ship, about £120 pp. (which is why I’m rather expecting/hoping that free flowing alcohol is included as well?). The 4* ship was better priced, about 20% lower.

However within the next fortnight I reckon all the cruise ship nights will have been sold. Not because they are bargain priced, but because they still haven’t made hotels available yet. The only other accommodation it’s been possible to book are the so called apartments, which are extremely basic. Most of these are in labour complexes outside the city (I assume they are letting go a lot of the workers that built the stadiums, hotels etc, if not permanently, then certainly during the tournament.)

I had always been intending to ‘commute’ in to the country, on a one day per game basis, ideally not even staying a night there. However that idea got blown out the water when they raised the price of flights from the likes of Dubai (a 1 hour journey) four or five times.

Things could change for the better over the next couple of months of course. All the early hype from FIFA about record number of ticket applications was totally artificial. All that happened was because fans realised they didn’t have to part with any money to make a ticket application, they just applied multiple times. The proof will be after this next sales phase, which starts tomorrow morning. Now that fans know who is playing who, they will stampede for the big name games and FIFA will be left with loads of unsold tickets for the less attractive games on their hands. They’ll eventually put bums on seats of course, to make the stadiums appear full - e.g. in Korea 2002 they had to bus load in civil servants, giving them a free team shirt, one team colour for one end of the ground, the other team colours at the opposite end, just so they didn’t lose face with a half empty stadium.

[McTeeko]

Good info Tartanb, thanks for that 👍🏼
Where about are you based?

[thplinth]

Personally I'd like to see a massive fan boycott, half empty stadiums, the works. Total disaster of a WC.

Draw a line in the (desert) sand with FIFA.

[tartanb]

McTeeko, still down near Reading, getting ready for tomorrow nights game v Stoke, where a win would get us a little further away from the relegation zone.

Despite my misgivings about Qatar (and I have plenty), we went ahead an booked a 72 hour stay there, where we’ve got tickets for 3 of the 4 quarter finals, grabbed in the first 2 FIFA sale phases. We’ve opted to spend the prior 10 days touring India, the sort of tour which ordinarily would have been in the host WC country, but off course who would want to spend 14 days in Qatar?

The dilemma will be, what happens if Scotland do qualify? I decided to cross that bridge if and when that happens.My India/Qatar itinerary is fixed in stone. My only option would be to try and sneak out beforehand for say one group game, then fly back to Blighty immediately after the game, heading over to India the following week.

The thought of that extra add on trip fills me with dread, but if push came to shove, you know me, I couldn’t not go and see Scotland in Qatar, even if I was just waltzing in for one game. My fan ID, which I need to get me in to Qatar, has already been arranged and could be used to get me in (I believe) for that extra game, even if I didn’t have any accommodation booked for my extra brief in/out visit.

 

Might see you there?

[McTeeko]

To be honest I’ve not looked into it all in detail yet. We still have to qualify first. IF that’s achieved, I’ll consider it but as most have said on this thread it’s a lot of money for a country I have no interest in visiting. The potential day trip(s) would be all I’d be interested in I think, purely for the game(s).

Edited April 4, 2022 by McTeeko

[thesaint]

The only trip that would come anywhere near to being possible,would be the same for most of the guys i know....maybe,just maybe a fly in for game and straight back home after.

[tartanb]

For anybody contemplating a fly in before the game, fly back out after the game approach, be aware of the importance of the Hayya card. For the duration of the tournament they are dispensing with the visas that you would normally purchase for £20 to get into Qatar. Instead you have to have a Hayya card to get into Qatar. In order to get a Hayya card you must have at least one match ticket in your name. If you haven’t got a ticket, then unless they change the rules, you won’t be allowed into the country.

If Scotland qualify you’ll presumably be able to get a ticket(s) via the supporters club. If you’re not a bone fide member, you might have a problem. All the red tape for this tournament is painful. If Scotland do manage to get there I suspect the travelling support will be their lowest for more than 20 years, once everyone finds out what the actual cost of getting there. I was lucky, I used all my avios to get us there and back, but BA, Qatar Airlines etc have since withdrawn any avios seats on their flights to/from Doha.

[thesaint]

15 minutes ago, tartanb said:

For anybody contemplating a fly in before the game, fly back out after the game approach, be aware of the importance of the Hayya card. For the duration of the tournament they are dispensing with the visas that you would normally purchase for £20 to get into Qatar. Instead you have to have a Hayya card to get into Qatar. In order to get a Hayya card you must have at least one match ticket in your name. If you haven’t got a ticket, then unless they change the rules, you won’t be allowed into the country.

If Scotland qualify you’ll presumably be able to get a ticket(s) via the supporters club. If you’re not a bone fide member, you might have a problem. All the red tape for this tournament is painful. If Scotland do manage to get there I suspect the travelling support will be their lowest for more than 20 years, once everyone finds out what the actual cost of getting there. I was lucky, I used all my avios to get us there and back, but BA, Qatar Airlines etc have since withdrawn any avios seats on their flights to/from Doha.

Think a lot of the countries will have their smallest support at a World Cup.Totally pricing most fans out of travelling.

[Toepoke]

Another problem facing Scotland/Wales is that England fans will have snaffled the bulk of seats on flights out of the UK and matchday accommodation before we even know if we've qualified. 

 

[0Neils40yarder]

20 hours ago, McTeeko said:

That’s my take on it all too. I know there are travel agents looking to put on day trips from Scotland (fly out overnight, day in Qatar, fly back overnight). No idea of the cost of this but it’s a potential option of seeing Scotland in a WC without maxing out the credit card. 

That sounds hellish...its ridiculous that it's come to this though 

[stocky]

2 hours ago, Toepoke said:

Another problem facing Scotland/Wales is that England fans will have snaffled the bulk of seats on flights out of the UK and matchday accommodation before we even know if we've qualified. 

 

Hopefully they will be booking up for the later stages.

( They're gonna get semi finals at least, 🤔😆 according to accounts)

Imagine being lucky enough to get a ticket and trip booked only to spend the whole flight listening to 'its coming home'. 

[Toepoke]

1 hour ago, stocky said:

 Imagine being lucky enough to get a ticket and trip booked only to spend the whole flight listening to 'its coming home'. 

Indeed. The only time we have been to a long haul World Cup alongside England was Mexico 86, and Three Lions wasn't written then 😁

I wonder if any older TAMBers can remember what it was like making that journey?

 

[alfaetrin]

 

8 hours ago, Toepoke said:

Indeed. The only time we have been to a long haul World Cup alongside England was Mexico 86, and Three Lions wasn't written then 😁

I wonder if any older TAMBers can remember what it was like making that journey?

 

I remember the big trip to Mexico very well. We arrived in a country we knew nothing about, not knowing what to expect. However, it exceeded all expectations. Mexico City, where we were based, was full of Scots, Danes, Belgians, Italians and fans from a host of other nations  all partying together in a friendly manner. Our football, of course, was as p!sh as it ever was at tournaments, but the party atmosphere in the city was fabulous.

That all changed when England fans started arriving in the city for their second round match against Paraguay. I witnessed them kicking the doors of bars that had closed, throwing litter around and fighting among themselves. The local population was horrified at these scenes, and the party atmosphere quickly came to an end.

All in all, however, it was a wonderful World Cup adventure, and one of my abiding memories is of the stadium in Querétaro, three hours north of Mexico City, where we played West Germany (remember Gordon Strachan's goal?). During the match the stadium was resounding to deafening chants of "We hate Jimmy Hill, he's a ****, he's a ****.

Oh, and I met a local girl in Mexico City, and we have been happily married for nearly 34 years. 🙄

[Toepoke]

Fantastic stories Al, cheers 🙂

Would've loved to make it to Mexico but getting to Hampden was a big enough adventure for me at the time.

My pal's uncle went, hopped over the border to the USA afterwards and hasn't been back since 😄

 

[Texas Pete]

On 4/2/2022 at 8:31 AM, Saint4805 said:

I said we 'could' be through if we win our first two games and didn't suggest this was likely. Was merely pointing out one scenario. I also said IF we get through (to Qatar) in the post I made just prior to the one you took the trouble to respond to but perhaps you missed that. 

Aye it was just a joke mate. Humour is still allowed on here isn’t it? 

[Sempre]

Followers of the Scotland national team face a World Cup nightmare if they qualify for Qatar as they are set for an official allocation of only 2,339 tickets. 
 

Seems to have flown under the radar this. Would imagine extra seats would be made available for Iran & maybe USA if unsold tickets, but that might be it for England.

 

[Caledonian Craig]

5 hours ago, Sempre said:

Followers of the Scotland national team face a World Cup nightmare if they qualify for Qatar as they are set for an official allocation of only 2,339 tickets. 
 

Seems to have flown under the radar this. Would imagine extra seats would be made available for Iran & maybe USA if unsold tickets, but that might be it for England.

 

Going to be the same for all competing nations BUT.....

Reports suggest lion's share kept for corporates and locals but cann see much of them going unsold and so put out on public sale in the end. Either that or tonnes of empty seats.

[Malcolm]

football is rotten now.  I can’t decide if that’s my view cos I’m older and like the “glory days” of 70s and 80s.  I really don’t have much interest in going to Qatar.  Feels like a plastic World Cup.  

[Caledonian Craig]

8 minutes ago, Malcolm said:

football is rotten now.  I can’t decide if that’s my view cos I’m older and like the “glory days” of 70s and 80s.  I really don’t have much interest in going to Qatar.  Feels like a plastic World Cup.  

Certainly a lot wrong with them getting their grubby little paws on it. 

I have said it before and will say it again it should only  go to countries with football in its DNA as proven over the years. Rotate it between the likes of Germany, Brazil, Italy, Spain, Argentina, UK, France and Mexico.

 

[McTeeko]

2 hours ago, Malcolm said:

football is rotten now.  I can’t decide if that’s my view cos I’m older and like the “glory days” of 70s and 80s.  I really don’t have much interest in going to Qatar.  Feels like a plastic World Cup.  

Yup, the closer it gets the worse it sounds. 2500 tickets for each nation ffs 😡