The mad scramble for England tickets

England away! It's why we all do it of course, the travel, meeting your mates, having a few days away, seeing folk who you know very well but surprisingly you don't talk to between England games. The flights and hotels are booked well in advance, sneaky phone calls and e-mails ensure we are well prepared, and the less your 'other half' knows the better. But the match tickets are a different matter, and sometimes they are in very short supply.

A case in point.  Montenegro v England, Friday October the 7th 2011, kick off TBC but the venue will be the City Stadium, (great name!) in Podgorica. The flights and hotels were booked many weeks ago, time off from work was all arranged and the ticket application submitted to the FA. The bad bit though, we were only allocated 1,182 tickets and the mad scramble meant that 3,500 England fans applied. No matter how you look at that there will be some very disappointed people. 3,500 applications for the few tickets available means that the ballot system that the FA use has to be enforced again.

And it works like this. 70% of the tickets, i.e. 826 will go to the England fans who are at the top of the 'Caps' table, that is those who have attended most games home or away over the qualifying period. The other 356 tickets would be balloted to the remaining 2,318 fans who wanted to travel to Montenegro. Not very good odds eh?

So the result for me is what? I got mine, fortunately I just sneak into the top 826 but my 3 travelling companions didn't get one. Flights and hotels are still booked but no match ticket available. So the options are very limited, there will be a chance of obtaining a ticket from any of the 1,182 who don't wish to travel now, very unlikely, or travel and cross your fingers that we can purchase tickets from some kind hearted Montenegrin who doesn't want to attend the biggest match in the short history of the Montenegro national football team. Again, very unlikely!

Sometimes it does make you consider if all of this is worth the trouble. But believe me, when we hear the roar of the crowd and see the massed ranks of the England fans, that is all 1,182 plus the unofficial travellers too, it does seem worthwhile. Roll on October!