Will you be supporting England in the World Cup?

[jonesey10]

can't wait 'til it's over.

 

[barneygumble]

Can’t say I’m massively excited to be perfectly honest?

But I do follow England so will be backing them. I think they’re on the downturn now, with Southgate mind.

2024 should be a much better occasion for everyone, including non-England followers.

 

[BNJ1878]

I think there are about 500,000 Brits living in the Gulf? Many of those will turn out in big numbers and I'd assume it'd make this Wc the most attended by English fans.

I know 3 English people who live in the UAE who are bothering making the day trip over for a game. (mainly because Qatar is too similar to here, a big part of an international tournament is the experience you will have.)

On the other side of the coin, every single Welsh adult I know living here is going over for all three group matches. (And the knockouts should they qualify. Tickets will not be a problem, Gulf travel agents still have availability for most games.)

As with most international tournaments, the excited fans are always the ones from the lower ranked nations/those who seldom qualify.

Edit: The English UAE based football fans are far more excited about travelling to North America/Mexico for the next World Cup. Qatar will be the worst 'fan exoerience' World Cup on record. It's an absolute joke

 

[emir]

I know 3 English people who live in the UAE who are bothering making the day trip over for a game. (mainly because Qatar is too similar to here, a big part of an international tournament is the experience you will have.)

On the other side of the coin, every single Welsh adult I know living here is going over for all three group matches. (And the knockouts should they qualify. Tickets will not be a problem, Gulf travel agents still have availability for most games.)

As with most international tournaments, the excited fans are always the ones from the lower ranked nations/those who seldom qualify.

Edit: The English UAE based football fans are far more excited about travelling to North America/Mexico for the next World Cup. Qatar will be the worst 'fan exoerience' World Cup on record. It's an absolute joke

Why are there so few English fans interested in going? Surely the WC being on the doorstep of where you are living should be enough incentive to attend?

 

[Lobster Johnson]

Why are there so few English fans interested in going? Surely the WC being on the doorstep of where you are living should be enough incentive to attend?

On the doorstep being a 4 hour flight to a stadium built on the bones of dead slaves in a desert where it's physically impossible to play football without planet-killing airco where nobody can vote and being gay is punishable with a brutal prison term.

maybe that little lot has something to do with it.

 

[Everton1654]

On the doorstep being a 4 hour flight to a stadium built on the bones of dead slaves in a desert where it's physically impossible to play football without planet-killing airco where nobody can vote and being gay is punishable with a brutal prison term.

maybe that little lot has something to do with it.

Yeah I take all that on board, but we don't have to watch Everton for 7 weeks!

 

[BNJ1878]

Why are there so few English fans interested in going? Surely the WC being on the doorstep of where you are living should be enough incentive to attend?

Well, I can't speak for all of them but I'm also a little surprised at how little 'local' English interest there is.

I did however mention the fact that they're not getting any new cultural experience moving between the UAE and Qatar. (The locals will obviously argue they're hugely different, but not to your average Western expat.)

I'm sure if England progress beyond the group stage the interest will ramp up. For group games, why bother with the ballache of checking in for a flight, driving through the city on a 'fan shuttle' getting dropped at the stadium and shuttled back to the airport straight after? With check in, immigration, shuttle to and from the stadium it's basically 7.5 hrs messing around for 90 mins of football. They may aswel drink their overpriced beer in the UAE where they already have hotels with experience of putting on faux fan parks from previous tournaments.

Of course, lots of European fans are going through the above described method travel for games on the UAE shuttle but that's more out of necessity than choice. Hotels are still 'relatively' affordable in Dubai/Abu Dhabi, and as a tourist there's plenty more to do in either city than Doha to fill time between group games.

 

[Lobster Johnson]

Yeah I take all that on board, but we don't have to watch Everton for 7 weeks!

Personally, I'm just going to enjoy the break from football.

 

[Pittsburgh Footy]

I know 3 English people who live in the UAE who are bothering making the day trip over for a game. (mainly because Qatar is too similar to here, a big part of an international tournament is the experience you will have.)

On the other side of the coin, every single Welsh adult I know living here is going over for all three group matches. (And the knockouts should they qualify. Tickets will not be a problem, Gulf travel agents still have availability for most games.)

As with most international tournaments, the excited fans are always the ones from the lower ranked nations/those who seldom qualify.

Edit: The English UAE based football fans are far more excited about travelling to North America/Mexico for the next World Cup. Qatar will be the worst 'fan exoerience' World Cup on record. It's an absolute joke

The Qatari government couldn't pay me enough to spend any time in that godforsaken country.

I ain't gonna get detained anywheres

 

[LEONARD]

Even before the first game kicks off, this stinks to high heaven.

 

[bcblue1878]

Genuinely couldn’t give a flying one about “supporting” England tbh! Last World Cup I had any interest in was Mexico 1970, largely because of Ball, Labone, Newton and Wright!
Oh and those coin sets you could collect from ESSO (?) garages!
Ever since then zero interest!

 

[Barnfred 55]

I'm English so will support the team as I would do in any sport. But I honestly haven't given it a second thought so far and not particularly looking forward to it either. All seems wrong to me being in the middle of the season. See that fraud Blatter has come out today and said the World Cup should never have been awarded to Qatar. Somebody shoot him please.

 

[Brendan Janus]

Of course I will watch England & most games at The World Cup, but win or lose, I couldn't care less !!

 

[TGW89]

Human rights on toast. How convenient that goblin grid finally admits it was wrong to take a brown envelope from Qatar.

 

[gonetomorrow]

This world cup is a nonsense. It's messing up the whole 22/23 season.