Every two years there is a small-scale exodus from this country, in addition to the traditional departures of all those people who jet off to the Costa del Sol to cook themselves on a beach for a fortnight. Every two years England qualifies for an international football tournament and the fans prepare for the journey.
The air companies rub their hands with glee at this time of year and throw an extra couple of zeros on the end of their flight costs, even if it’s just as close as going to France. Thousands, literally, thousands, of fans make their way to whatever the destination is in order to watch their football team compete.
The destinations are fairly tourist friendly as well; part of the attraction of holding such an event is the boost to tourism. On the whole, the tournaments only get awarded to countries that have the infrastructure to support the influx of people or enough money floating around to afford the best stadiums in the world.
In the last dozen years there have been competitions in Austria and Switzerland – the latter of which in particular is absolutely breathtaking even when it’s not skiing season – Germany, Portugal, South Korea, Holland and Belgium, and France. So they may not all be the interesting exotic locations that they could have been, but it’s still a good opportunity to experience another country.
The advent of budget air travel has revolutionised these tournaments. They used to be spectacles for the host nation and wealthy travellers (when England competed in Mexico just four years after winning the tournament they didn’t exactly take half of the country with them). Nowadays, with budget airlines such as Fly Monarch offering cheap flights to cities all over Europe and cheap hotels easy to book at sites like lastminute.com, it is simply a case of finding the nearest airport to where you want to go and then working out what you want to do when you get there. More than ever a football tournament is followed by enormous groups of supporters from each of the countries that compete. Usually, of course, they mingle in peace and friendliness, though there are always the odd exceptions to be found.
In their own way, football fans typify the rough and ready style of travel most usually experienced by students in their year out. They rock up by whatever mode of transport is most convenient, often with no idea of where they’re going to stay or where they’re going to travel, and then take it from there, most often to the pub but some, perhaps, take a couple of hours out from the alcohol to experience an entirely new culture.
