After a Saturday afternoon with no football - if you don't count England's magnificent 0-0 draw with Saudi Arabia - the withdrawal symptoms are beginning to bite.
The World Cup is looming, with much delights to savour for those of us lucky enough to be going to France. But the whole event has been soured by the lack of tickets at affordable prices. I was venting my ire, as I do, at a chap in the travel trade who was offering packages to the Scotland games. Doing the arithmetic of subtracting the price without a ticket from the price with ticket, you come up with some horrific figures.
Like #450 minimum for the Brazil-Scotland opening match and #1000 for the Brazil-Scotland final. Probably more galling is seeing a #16 ticket for the match against Norway being quoted at #260. This was the price quoted to me by Cityrama, one of the French ticket agencies.
Our very own Passport Travel of Clydebank are a bit cheaper. They will provide the ticket and a day-return trip for #399. The ticket alone comes in at #145. Kelvin Travel of Glasgow are quoting #125 for Morocco tickets and #150 for the Norway game. The Kelvin price for the Brazil game is #786 for flights, four nights, and a ticket.
The least attractive deal we have seen is #800 for a flight from Stansted, two nights in Paris, and a ticket for the Brazil game. But as options disappear, this is the kind of deal fans will have to accept if they want to be there.
So why are travel agents charging such hefty prices for tickets? It is quite simple. They are paying hefty prices to the ticket agencies appointed by FIFA. And why are the FIFA-appointed agencies charging such hefty prices? Quite simple, too.
The agencies and tour operators had to pay substantial amounts of money for the right to sell on the tickets. They need the mark-up to recoup the millions of pounds they have paid to FIFA.
So, at the end of the day, who are the ticket touts. That's right. It's FIFA and the French organising committee, the very people who are warning that they will crack down on ticket-touting.
q I DON'T want to be pessimistic here but don't you think, with scoring two goals against Colombia in the World Cup warm-up, we might be peaking too soon?
q MAURICE Hickey, a Tartan Army regular exiled in Plymouth, came across a quote from the writings of the Rev. Francis Kilvert, which made him think of the poor folk of Marseille, Toulouse, and Lens who will have to put up with a certain set of football fans.
Kilvert, something of an expert on human nature, wrote: ''The English speak ill of all nations and boast without ceasing of their own; that is what the English call travelling, of all tourists the most vulgar, ill-bred offensive and loathsome.''
q A BELATED report of some crowd behaviour at Celtic Park on the day the league title was won. Amidst all the usual songs and chants, a young man stands on his seat and belts out: ''Le jour de gloire est arrive . . .''
Our correspondent, who was seated adjacent, wondered if the young man was of French origin, possibly a member of the Rive Gauche Emerald supporters club. But, no. As Le Jeune Tim called across to some friends ''Ah'll see yeez aboot nine in Shevlane's,'' it became obvious he was a local sliding gently from domestic celebration into France '98 mode.
q YOU would think debates about so many league titles in a row would disappear for a while after Celtic's victory. But we fear the evidence is to the contrary. In the advertising columns of The Herald we find an application for a licence for a snooker club under the name of Teninarow Ltd. Perhaps it is a reference to snookers and not league championships.
q Meanwhile, those doughty and staunch Rangers fans at the Louden Tavern in Duke Street, Glasgow, have rescheduled their 10-in-a-row party. It will be held on May 9, 2009. Phone Robert on 0141 554 1053 for tickets.
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