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....