The Socceroos may be out of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, but for optimistic poms living in Australia, the dream of ‘football coming home’ is now a real possibility should England make it to the World Cup final next Monday in Moscow.
Aussie Travel Agents: Here’s your chance to send the poms packing back to England! And get a commission out of it.
A joyous hangover followed England’s 2-0 quarter-final win over Sweden in the early hours of last Sunday morning in Australia, fuelling a spike in searches for airfares back to the motherland in readiness for a potential ‘dream’ World Cup final spot against either France or Belguim.
Watched on TV in England by 24.5 million people, the quarter-final eclipsed Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s recent royal wedding viewing numbers (18m) and has since sent England into a nationwide world cup frenzy where nothing else other than football it seems, matters anymore this week.
It’s coming home… pic.twitter.com/Qxg8g0HvLe
— British Airways (@British_Airways) July 7, 2018
For poms living in Australia, seeing England win the World Cup could be a once in a lifetime experience since the last (and only) time it happened was back in 1966.
In fact, you’d have to go back 28 years to 1990 for the last time England even reached the semi-finals of a World Cup tournament.
To put that fact into perspective: Most of the current England team weren’t even born then.
Any die-hard English football fan will tell you that the pain and the misery of watching mostly ‘terrible’ England play over the last 28 years has only added to the significance of this historic moment they now find themselves in.
So the prospect of actually being in the UK ‘if’ (and that’s still a sizeable ‘if’ by the way) to witness the big one should England make it to the final is massive for Australian based poms.
Not surprisingly, the England theme tune “THREE LIONS” has gone to Number 1 in the UK charts.
#ThreeLions is the NEW official Number 1 ?@MarvinHumes just revealed that @baddiel, Skinner & @Lightning_Seeds have the BIGGEST song in the UK this week – IT’S COMING HOME!
See the full chart ? https://t.co/4ul1ciAnoN pic.twitter.com/2B6i46pW2X
— The Official Vodafone Big Top 40 (@BigTop40) July 8, 2018
And even Rapper Drake is getting in on the hype…
Drake: “COME ON ENGLAND!” ? pic.twitter.com/RLJxFtVzzK
— VERSUS (@vsrsus) July 8, 2018
The almighty ‘IF’ of course is whether England can first beat Croatia in the semi-final on Thursday morning (0400 AEST) to seal their spot in the final.
Taking a quick squiz for ourselves, here are the best fares we could find out of Sydney as an example (as of this morning) when this article went live.
THE CHEAPEST AND LONGEST:
Departing Friday 20 Jul, Returning 27 Jul
43 hours outbound flying time (Ouch) via Manila
Philippine Airlines SYD – LHR
Economy
$1921
THE BEST VALUE:
Departing Friday 20 Jul, Returning 27 Jul
25.5 hours outbound flying time via KL
Malaysian Airlines SYD – LHR
Economy
$1989
THE FASTEST (Mixed fare):
Departing Friday 20 Jul, Returning 27 Jul
22.40 hours outbound flying time
Singapore Airlines SYD – LHR via SIN
Return Qantas LHR – SYD via PER
Economy
$3749
Meanwhile, in England, fans have been racing to book last minute tickets to Russia after discovering a cheeky ‘Fan ID’ loophole that allows them to get into the country without a visa or a match ticket.
While getting a Russian visa before the semi-final or the final will now take too long, England fans wanting to travel to Russia need only copy down any ticket number (which they’re copying thanks to people posting their tickets on social media) and submit those and can obtain a Fan ID in minutes.
England go 2-0 up against Sweden in the quarter-final
According to Uk media site The Telegraph, British Airways announced yesterday it was laying on bigger aircraft on flights into Moscow and St Petersburg “to make sure as many fans as possible can travel”.
UK flight website, kiwi.com said it had seen an 83 per cent increase in bookings to Russia in recent days.
If England does manage to beat Croatia on Thursday morning, you can bet on airfares and demand to spike out of Australia even more, thanks to the last minute emotion and serious #FOMO of personally not ‘coming home.’