Today at midday the fans-only sale for the England's defeat against Brazil at the new (and late) Wembley went on sale. This sale was fully paid up members of the England fan club, of which I am one. At midday, the reminder went of and I immediately went to the ticketing portal and joined the queue. It said I had 1 hour to wait, giving me time to duck out to lunch.
I get back and I have a 5 minute wait. Excellent news. The time ticked by slowly (I didn't want to miss my window of opportunity so I was doing nothing else) and eventually the page loads. I punch in my member details (number and password) and specify that I want 2 tickets. The first field is populated with my name, the second requires the England fan number of the other person. Naturally, this is going to be Heather. After trying a couple of times to skip past this screen, I give and call Heather for her details, which are duly obtained.
This number is keyed in and I hit the "Submit" button. I immediately receive the message "This person is not a paying of the England Fan club". WTF?!! It's fair enough to get fans to be free members in order to get tickets, but to force everyone to be a paid up member in order to buy their tickets is just greedy. After shelling out for the tickets and membership, that would have cost around £100 per person.
I am sorry but in their current form England are not worth that amount. My pessimism about their qualification chances I have already mentioned, but even if we were to qualify, the football played will be boring and we will struggle to win anything, scratching out 1-0 wins.
Although Sven McClaren is receiving all the flak at the moment, it has to be said that some players do not play to their best when playing for England: Lampard, Rooney, Carrick, either of the Nevilles. Drop them from the first team and make them earn their spot again. Some of them (especially Rooney) seem content to rest on their laurels, so the shock my change their attitude and if it doesn't then they don't deserve to wear the 3 Lions.
Still, with McClaren's lack of balls, that's not going to happen any time soon.
