The results of the World Cup Finals Draw: World Cup 2018 Russia

The results of the World Cup Finals Draw: World Cup 2018 Russia

So after 3 years of qualifying and hundreds and hundreds of games of football around the globe, the draw for the World Cup Finals in Russia took place last weekend, and we now know which teams we will be seeing in the group matches we already have tickets for. They are: -

Match 4 - Morocco vs Iran

Match 17 - Russia vs Egypt

Match 25 - Brazil vs Costa Rica

Match  39 - Nigeria vs Argentina

So whilst the Morocco v Iran game is a bit of a low-wattage match, the other 3 games in the group stage look quite good. From experience, it is always great when you can attend a match with the world cup hosts involved, as there is generally a great atmosphere, and Russia v Egypt could be a significant game in the scheme of things, (Egypt are my tip of a bit of a dark horse…!). And anytime you get to see Brazil or Argentina play is always a special event, so overall, I am quite happy with the draw so far. 

Using my understanding of the relative strengths and weaknesses of each of the teams, and based on who I think will finish 1^st & 2^nd in their respective groups, there could be a good chance that we could see later games in the tournament involving teams such as Spain, Uruguay & England. And if my "guessing" is correct and matches go to form, there is a potential Argentina v Germany semi-final in our future… How about that….!

The next round of Ticket Sales open in the next few days, and we are still after tickets to Match 56 and the elusive World Cup Final match, so keep your fingers crossed for us that we do well in the next random lottery.

Germany to Win the World Cup...?? : World Cup Russia 2018

Germany to Win the World Cup...?? : World Cup Russia 2018

In my last Blog, I forecast that the following 8 teams would be successful in making it through to the final 32 of the World Cup qualifying process: -

Italy / Croatia / Denmark / Ivory Coast / Peru / Northern Ireland / Australia / Senegal / Tunisia

Well, I got 5 out of the 8 right, so not too bad. Almost no one was expecting Italy to be defeated by Sweden and miss out on their first World Cup Finals since 1958, but they did..! Switzerland managed to bully their way past Northern Ireland, and Ivory Coast conspired to loose out in their qualifying group to Morocco.

So there you have it, the final 32 teams for next year’s World Cup Finals.

The Final Draw for the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia is happening in Moscow on Friday 1 December, and will start at 18:00 local time. It is live on TV here in New Zealand at 4am on Saturday, and I will set my alarm to get up and see it.

The draw itself is generally a very convoluted and complex thing, and I have found a YouTube video to explain it: https://youtu.be/jDkn83FwioA

Obviously being a geek, I have conducted my own unofficial draw to see if I can guess which matches we will be seeing in the opening group games, and come up with the following:

M4 Costa Rica v Saudi Arabia

M17 Russia v Sweden

M25 France v Iceland

M39 Panama v Belgium

As I am a bit of a nerd, I have also done a complete mock-up of the whole of the Tournament based upon who I think will progress through the group stages to identify who we might see in the succeeding games:

M51 Brazil v Sweden

M56 Poland v Switzerland

M62 Belgium v Portugal

M64 Germany v Belgium

So I am forecasting that it will be a Germany v Belgium final, with Germany going on to lift the World Cup in 2018…!! 

I wish I could predict England for the World Cup......, but that would be madness...

The end of Qualifying. Who will qualify..? : World Cup 2018 Russia

The end of Qualifying. Who will qualify..? : World Cup 2018 Russia

Well, enough about tickets and travel arrangements, it’s time to look at the World Cup Qualifiers, and who is going to make it into the last 32 teams to play in Russia. So far the following teams have qualified :

Russia / Brazil / Germany / Spain / France / Portugal / Argentina / Mexico / Belgium / South Korea / England  / Nigeria / Columbia / Japan / Costa Rica / Poland / Egypt / Iceland / Iran / Saudi Arabia / Serbia / Panama

From my perspective, the most significant team that is not on that list is the USA, who somehow manage to contrive to throw away their chance to reach the finals with some incredibly poor results in their last few game, not helped by results elsewhere. After having done so well in Brazil in 2014, it feels like a real backward step for US football, and I genuinely hope that they can turn things around over the next few years and make a better fist of it for 2022.

There are however still 9 places left to be taken for next year’s finals, and over the coming weekend the last round of qualifying and knock out games will take place. As is tradition, I am going to try and guess which teams are going to make it through to the finals. The African Conference are playing their last qualifying games to sort out who goes through, and I am going to choose Senegal, Tunisia & the Ivory Coast.

In Europe, there are 4 play-off games taking place, and I have highlighted who I think will go through over two legs below:-

Croatia v Greece / Northern Ireland v Switzerland / Sweden v Italy / Denmark v Rep of Ireland

The 5^th place team in Central American Conference, Honduras, are playing off against runners-up in the Asian qualifying, Australia, and I choose Australia to win that one. This is based on nothing more than me holding Honduras accountable for knocking the USA out of next year’s tournament with their ridiculous late goal in qualifying.

Last but not least is my adopted home country New Zealand, (winners of the somewhat farcical Oceania qualifying group), are playing Peru, who finished 5^th in the South American Conference. If my heart ruled my head, which it is apt to do on occasion, I would go for New Zealand, but if I really thought they stood a chance, I would have brought tickets to the play-off game and thrown my support behind them. But alas not…. So unfortunately I am choosing Peru to go through.

So there you have it…. I am expecting Italy / Croatia / Denmark / Ivory Coast / Peru / Northern Ireland / Australia / Senegal / Tunisia go through after this round of play-off games…

How will I do….?

We have Tickets..... Yay : World Cup 2018 Russia

We have Tickets..... Yay : World Cup 2018 Russia

Well stone the crows…..!!

The result of the First Sales Phase lottery are in, and we have been very, very lucky and scooped almost all the tickets we requested, how about that….!!

We have received confirmation of match tickets for each of the following 6 games, out of the 8 games that wanted to see: 

• M4  - Friday, 15 June 2018 - 18.00 - St. Petersburg
• M17 - Tuesday, 19 June 2018 - 21.00 - St. Petersburg (this game will include the hosts Russia)
• M25 - Friday, 22 June 2018 - 15.00 - St. Petersburg
• M39 - Tuesday, 26 June 2018 - 21.00 - St. Petersburg
• M51 - Sunday, 1 July 2018 - 17.00 -  Moscow Luzhniki
• M62 - Wednesday, 11 July 2018 - 21.00 -  Moscow Luzhniki 

We missed out on the following:

• M56 - Tuesday, 3 July 2018 - 21.00 - Moscow Spartak
• M64 (World Cup Final) – Sunday, 15 July 2018 - 18.00 -  Moscow Luzhniki 

I am not surprised about not getting the Finals tickets, as they are always in high demand, but we still have 4 additional sales phase to try and get the remaining tickets.

Now all we need is the qualification to finish and the draw to take place to know what matches we will be attending at next summer’s competition.

Only 227 Days, 18 hours, 25 minutes until the 2018 World Cup kicks off...!!

Tickets go on Sale… What..?? : World Cup 2018 Russia

Tickets go on Sale… What..?? : World Cup 2018 Russia

Well, unbeknownst to me, and at odds with any information I have previously found on the FIFA website, or any other site on the internet come to that, the first of the ticket sales phases for World Cup 2018 Russia has started…??

The Sales Phases are organised as follows:

Sales Phase 1

-     Random Selection Lottery Period – From 14^th September to 12^th October 2017

-     First Come, First Served Period – From 14^th November to 28^th November 2017

Sales Phase 2

-     Random Selection Lottery Period – From 5^th December 2017 to 31^st January 2018

-    First Come, First Served Period – From 13^th March to 3^rd April 2018

Last Minute Sales Phase – From 18^th April to 15^th July 2018

So that means that Yates and I need to sort our ticketing strategy to make the most of the 5 available opportunities we have to buy tickets. We need a ticketing strategy as we are after tickets for 8 location-specific matches, split between St. Petersburg & Moscow, for up to 8 people. This is a problem in itself as applicants can only apply for a max of up to 7 matches, and for a maximum of up to 4 tickets per match. But we have a cunning plan…..

If ticketing works out the way it has over the past handful of World Cups, we will get some of the tickets we want in each sales phase, with the only real sticking point being getting our hands on tickets for the World Cup Final, which we have been unable to do for the past 6 World Cup Tournaments. But we will be in Moscow at the time of the Final and will try everything we can to get are sweaty little hands on those oh so elusive Finals tickets…. 

Wish us luck…!

Say Hello to the World Cup Stadiums: World Cup 2018 Russia

Say Hello to the World Cup Stadiums: World Cup 2018 Russia

Credit: Knowledge Tube (link)

Ticketing & Fan-ID Visa Travel: World Cup 2018 Russia

Ticketing & Fan-ID Visa Travel: World Cup 2018 Russia

Here is a short update regarding ticketing timeframes and the proposed FAN-ID Travel Visa Waiver details.

Now that this year’s Confederations Cup has successful completed in Russia, and Germany have once again successfully walked away with yet another trophy, it is time to keep an eye out for more detail about the ticketing process for 2018. At the back end of last week, TASS, the state approved news agency for Russia, announced that the draw for the group stage of the 2018 World Cup will take place on Friday, December 1 at the State Kremlin Palace inside the Moscow Kremlin. This is completely in line with timetable of previous world cups draws, so no surprises there. What was surprising though was that on the same day, the Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko announced that tickets for the 2018 FIFA World Cup will go on sale on Friday, December 1, effectively after the World Cup Draw has taken place…!!

This is a MASSIVE bombshell..! Since we started our World Cup tournament odyssey, match tickets were already on sale, and sometimes even two sales phases in, well before the Finals draw was made. In 2006 in Germany we were already buying tickets in May, well over a year before the tournament kicked off, and in 2010 in South Africa & 2014 in Brazil, we already purchased the majority of the match tickets we wanted before the World Cup Finals draw was even made.

“So what the problem with that…?”

Well, this means that anyone interested in going to the World Cup in 2018 will know exactly who is playing who for every match, and therefore applying for the games they really want to see. 

“And why is that such a problem…?”

Well, I think we have always had a bit of an advantage over those people that wanted to know the draw before ordering tickets, in that we could buy tickets for specific locations in the early sales phase when no one knew who was playing in that match, and there was, in theory, less demand. Now, if one of the matches we want to see in St. Petersburg or Moscow have the hosts, or one of the favourites playing, there will be much more demand for those tickets. I can see this causing us a possible headache in December when we want to buy tickets…!!

In other, slightly more positive news, details about the use of the mandated FAN-ID process and how they are to be used as Travel Visa’s to get in to Russia next year are beginning to seep out. Firstly, Russian media have reported that it takes only 72 hours to process an application for a FAN-ID, which is great for those of us that need one issued before we can enter into Russia. Assuming that we get some tickets in the early part of the initial sales phase, (starting December 1st 2017), then it should only be a matter of weeks after our ticket order is accepted before we can apply for our FAN-IDs,and they arrive in our mailbox, which will hopefully be months before we start our travels towards Russia in May.

Secondly, and it depends on which news source you read, the FAN-ID will be valid for entry into Russia 10 days before the tournament starts and for 10 days after, which is just about perfect for us. There is some confusion around this as I have also read that the FAN-ID will be valid for travel into Russia 10 days before, and after the date of the first/last game for which you have a ticket purchased from FIFA.com…. Whilst this is a little more restrictive in terms of timings, as we are aiming to arrive in St. Petersburg on the 6^th June and the first game we want tickets for is on the 15^th, (9 days before), and the last game we want to attend is on the 11^th July, (assuming we cannot get tickets for the Final on 15^th), and we are planning on leaving Russia on the 19^th July (8 days after), we should be okay. So it appears that we should be able to get our FAN-IDs issued well before we need them and that they will cover us for entry & exit to Russia in the time we are proposing to be there… 

It's not all bad news....

Accommodation Done: World Cup 2018 Russia

Accommodation Done: World Cup 2018 Russia

Since the last post we have nailed down our accommodation for Russia 2018, well at least I hope we have…?

As with the last World Cup in Brazil, I have been looking at AirBnB as the primary resource for accommodation in Russia, mainly because it’s more economical than hotels and apartments, and there is a better choice & selection available. The trouble with trying to book something this far out from next year’s competition, is that many owners have not considered their pricing for 2018, and the closer we get the more expensive it can become, plus there is more incentive for owners to "Bump" reservations and put their prices up. I guess this has always been a potential problem for us when booking non-hotel type accommodation, but we have just been lucky so far...

The more I thought about trying to shoe-horn in a week or 2 in Finland, or even base ourselves there for the early stages of the World Cup, the more of a logistical problem it became. With 4 games in St. Petersburg and 3 of them being evening games, meant that travelling back to Finland after the games would mean some late nights, or even having to find somewhere to stay for the evening. In the end I decided that it would be easier to get a long term rental on an apartment for almost 3 weeks in St. Petersburg and base ourselves there.

With this in mind, I started to look at splitting our time between St. Petersburg & Moscow and drew up a shortlist of suitable AirBnB accommodation for a potential group of up to 8 people in each location, and reached out to a small handful of places to see if we can get the accommodation locked down. As a backup, I also took a look at hotel type apartments that are less likely to "bump" our reservation once booked, and it allowed us the flexibility to book a different size hotel rooms to accommodate additional people that may want to join us in Russia. I shared the shortlist of about 6 potential AirBnB places with Yates and we came up with our favourites and I started the booking process.

Within a period of about 2 weeks at the end of May, I managed to book an 8 people apartment in the heart of St. Petersburg for 22 days, (7^th June to 29^th June), and a similar sized apartment in central Moscow for 20 days, (29^th June to 19^th July). Both apartments were within our proposed budget and give us flexibility in terms of accommodating various combination of potential guests during our time in Russia. Additionally, both apartments are within easy walking distance to the centre of each city, and well located for public transport for getting to the various stadiums, and I have my fingers-crossed that when the Fan-Zones are announced that we will be pretty close to those as well.  RESULT…!!

So now that the accommodation is sorted, time to starting thinking about the next hurdle to overcome, ticketing. There is still no new information coming out of FIFA about tickets, but with the Confederations Cup now underway, but I am expecting that we will get more news in the next month or so. However, we can now be a bit more specific about the 8 matches we will be targeting for tickets:

St.Petersburg & Moscow
Match	Location	Time	Teams	CAT2 $
M4	St. Petersburg	18.00	B3vB4	$       165
M17	St. Petersburg	21.00	RUSvA3	$       165
M25	St. Petersburg	15.00	E1vE3	$       165
M39	St. Petersburg	21.00	D4vD1	$       165
M51	Moscow Luzhniki	17.00	1Bv2A	$       185
M56	Moscow Spartak	21.00	1Hv2G	$       185
M62	Moscow Luzhniki	21.00	W59vW60	$       480
M64	Moscow Luzhniki	18.00	W61vW62	$       710
			Cost per person (US$)	$    2,220

If my memory is correct regarding previous World Cups, we could only buy a max of 7 sets of tickets per person, which may be a problems as we want to 8 matches. This could be further compounded by the additional identity authentication process with FAN-ID, making it significantly more risky trying to buy tickets in the name of someone not attending the matches. I have a few cunning strategies up my sleeve, but until more information is announced, there is no point in worrying about it…

In other news, as is our tradition, Fiona and I have booked our pre-World Cup Trip, where we go somewhere as part of our travel to the World Cup host country. In previous years we have indulged our love of travel and spent a couple of weeks in Tunisia, Namibia, and Chile, all of which have a decidedly ‘desert’ ambiance to them. So in order to continue the theme, for 2018 we are going to head to Alice Springs in mid-May, and spend 2 weeks driving an RV to Sydney through the ‘Red Centre’, stopping off to see Uluru and some other sights on the way. This is an adventure that Fiona and I have always wanted and now is as good a time as any..!  On the way back from the World Cup this time, our plan is to first head to Barcelona for a week to celebrate Fiona’s 50^th Birthday, and then stop off somewhere in either Asia or South America, depending on which way round the world our flights take, on our way back to Christchurch.

As you can imagine, excitement is beginning to build.

All Quiet on the Russian Front: World Cup 2018 Russia

All Quiet on the Russian Front: World Cup 2018 Russia

Well, it's all quiet on the Russian Front right now. There is minimal new information coming out of Russia about the plans for the World Cup in 2018, so there is not a lot for me to report on. I am waiting until this year’s Confederations Cup tournament to be completed before I expect to see any further information about tickets, ticket sales phases, and city fan-zone details.

Looking at the details of the Confederations Cup is usually a good pointer for the way things are going to run for the actual World Cup in 2018.  The Ticket Sales Phases for the Confederations Cup are as follows:

• VISA Pre-Sale
• Random Selection Draw
• First Come First Served
• Last Minute Sales

The above breakdown is very similar to previous World Cups so I would expect that the VISA Pre-Sale to kick off in November this year, with the Random Selection phase running from December through January 2018. The First Come/First Served phase I expect to happen in March & April, with the Last Minute phase from April thru July.

An extra step required for this World Cup will be the requirement to get a Russian issued “Fan-ID”, which they are trialling for the Confederations Cup.

The “Fan-ID” is a personalised visitor card, required by Russian legislation, that we will need in addition to our tickets. This identity card is issued for each visitor and is obligatory for all ticket owners. For foreigners, the “Fan-ID”  also gives a right to visa-free entrance to Russia as well. The “Fan-ID” may also give us free transport options on match days. To get a “Fan-ID” you first need to buy valid tickets for the world cup from the FIFA website and receive a confirmation, after which you can apply for a “Fan-ID” and either pick it up, or get it delivered in the mail.

On the planning front, the latest idea is to spend 2-3 weeks in St. Petersburg, and then 2-3 weeks in Moscow, which will allow us to see up to 8 matches including the Final, (subject to getting tickets of course). I like the idea of Staying in Finland and then travelling to the games in St. Petersburg, but in the end it would be inconvenient to get back to Finland from the evening games, meaning that would probably have ended up staying in the city on those days anyway. Fiona & I may spend a week or so in Finland before we meet up with Yates in St. Petersburg, so we won’t be missing out.

In terms of our teams qualifying for the World Cup in Russia, England continue to flatter themselves with another win to keep them the top of their group in the European qualifiers. It is always the same, England do very well in the qualification stage, but never seem to get it together in the actual competition, will this time be any different...? The USA on the other hand, have had a lousy qualification so far, but they did manage a draw against Panama to get them into 4^th place, but they will need to step-it-up if they want to be in the top 3 to get that automatic qualification place. New Zealand are on the top of group A in their qualification battle in the Oceania

group, which gives them a playoff against whoever wins Group B, and then a playoff against the 5^th best team in the South American group, which is currently Argentina…!!! If it’s not Argentina, then it could be either Chile, Uruguay, Ecuador, or Peru, either way, I don’t hold out too much hope…. 

Come on you All Whites…