Trip to England to watch Football
 

Hello, my fiance and I are thinking about planning a trip to england next year for about 10 days. I've been only to London and she's never been. We want to definitely catch at least one football game while we're there (early Sept). Advice?

I take it you dont really mind who it is you're going to watch? Would you be wanting to see a game in London? <BR><BR>Manchester United/Arsenal(London)/Liverpool are the 3 biggest teams right now. Check soccernet.com for upcoming fixtures. You can usually book through a team's website.

Thanks for the reply. I'd love to watch one of those three, but is it really that easy to get tickets to the big games? We were thinking about maybe going to see some Americans (Friedel or Reyna) play but Blackburn and Sunderland are rather far away. Thoughts?

If you check the schedule for these teams, they might play in London as there are 4 or 5 teams around town. Arsenal, Chelsea come to mind. Arsenal tickets are little harder to get, but about 2 years ago I was able to walk up and buy a ticket for a Chelsea home game, just before returning to US. I'm a big ManU fan, see at least 2 or 3 games a year, but I have a guy in Manchester that gets me some excellent tickets. If you go to Google and do a search for football tickets, couple of British ticket brokers websites will pop up. Give them a try. Also, you could contact the home team and inquire about hospitality packages. They are more expensive but you will get a pretty good seat and usually a before and after game lunch, drinks and get to meet 1 or 2 players.<BR>Try this site for schedule and latest info about Premiership:<BR>www.4thegame.com<BR>You will have a great time, as the atmosphere is nothing like you ever witnessed at our football games. Very spirited and full of team fighting songs sung by whole sections of the stadium.<BR>Have a great time!<BR>Go ManU Red Devils!!!!<BR>This season is ours!

Football in England is a great experience. We saw our first match two years ago (Tottenham v Liverpool) and a few more matches last year (Arsenal v Liverpool, Chelsea v Leeds and a First Division match of Crystal Palace v Coventry City). We're heading back in November for more.<BR><BR>The following link shows all of the Premiership clubs in England on a map:<BR>http://www.soccerage.com/en/25/00039.html<BR>It can be very helpful in planning.<BR><BR>I got tickets for Tottenham and Chelsea by calling the clubs right when they went on sale to non-members. You can get more information on their websites:<BR>http://www.spurs.co.uk/<BR>http://www.chelseafc.com/<BR><BR>Arsenal is much tougher. I used a ticket agency and had to pay over $100. If you want to chance it, show up at the grounds and you may be able to buy from a scalper.<BR><BR>Man U will be strong this year (especially if they get Rio Ferdinand) but Arsenal will repeat. Go Gunners!<BR><BR>Good luck.

Thanks for the responses. If we wanted to watch a match in north England, is it possible to take a daytrip just to catch a match in Liverpool or Blackburn? Do you recommend train or car for getting around?

why not come to wonderful white hart lane and see the Spurs? (accept no imitations or substitutes). You will even see an American - Kasey Keller<BR><BR>We're at home to West Ham on the 14th september, and that will be a great match for atmosphere, being a London derby.<BR><BR>Liverpool are very hard to get tickets for although Blackburn would be very very easy. Although Blackburn is completely impossible to get to on public transport and is a very long way for a day trip.<BR><BR>Don't go to the Arsenal, it only encourages them.

COME ON YOU SPURS!!!

Is Keller going to be the number 1 this year? Thanks for the Tottenham advice, but we're going next year. I'm just too excited and that's why I'm writing about this so early. When does the premier league schedule usually come out? Are tickets to 1st division games pretty easy to get? Do you recommend just staying in London to watch games instead of trying to travel?

Unless you have a real burning desire to watch an american in action, then you might as well stay in London to see a match.<BR><BR>The teams in the Premier League to see in London are:<BR><BR>Arsenal (but impossible to get tickets - they are the champions after all)<BR>Chelsea<BR>Tottenham Hotspur<BR>West Ham<BR>Fulham<BR><BR>You should be able to get tickets (from the individual club websites) for all these teams, unless they are playing Manchester United, Arsenal or Liverpool.<BR><BR>The season ends in May and starts again mid-August, so the fixtures are announced sometime soon after the end of the previous season.<BR><BR>Check out:<BR>http://www.barclaycard.co.uk/index.php3?page=405<BR>for a list of fixtures from Barclaycard, the Premier Leagure Official Sponsor.<BR><BR>And yes, you could do Liverpool or Blackburn in a (long) day trip - train is your best bet to avoid car parking and traffic problems near the ground.

Forgot to say Bryan, yes you can easily purchase Dividon One tickets, but it should equally be fairly easy to get tickets to any of the above mentioned London Premier League sides, provided you book early enough.<BR><BR>And it's only 1.5 hours by train to Birmingham, where you can catch the glorious Aston Villa (my team, clearly), who also have one of the biggest stadiums in the premiership. (Just don't make the mistake of seeing the dreaded enemy - Birmingham City).

Kate: Whatever happened to poor old Charlton Athletic?<BR><BR>The fixtures come out in mid July, but certain things are always true eg Spurs and Arsenal (henceforth the beasts) cannot be at home on the same day, ditto Chelsea and Fulham, Millwall and West HAm<BR><BR>If you want to see something completely removed from the money mad premiership look out for AFC Wimbledon (Not Wimbledon FC). THis is a club set up from scatch by fans of Wimbledon FC in protest against the actions of the chairman, principally the proposal to move the club to Milton Keynes (We don't do sports franchises in the UK!).<BR><BR>So far they have played one match, and drew a crowd of 4,500. They will be playing in the Combined counties league (probably in the Ryman league when you get here). It will give you an insight into what football means to communities.<BR><BR>Fixtures here:<BR><BR>http://www.wisa.org.uk/<BR><BR>Keller is at present spurs number one goalie, but that could change at any time. Don't make plans based on seeing a specific player at a specific club as he could well be transfered between now and when you arrive, especially as US players tend to be finge players in any team.<BR>

Kate: Whatever happened to poor old Charlton Athletic?<BR><BR>The fixtures come out in mid July, but certain things are always true eg Spurs and Arsenal (henceforth the beasts) cannot be at home on the same day, ditto Chelsea and Fulham, Millwall and West HAm<BR><BR>If you want to see something completely removed from the money mad premiership look out for AFC Wimbledon (Not Wimbledon FC). THis is a club set up from scatch by fans of Wimbledon FC in protest against the actions of the chairman, principally the proposal to move the club to Milton Keynes (We don't do sports franchises in the UK!).<BR><BR>So far they have played one match, and drew a crowd of 4,500. They will be playing in the Combined counties league (probably in the Ryman league when you get here). It will give you an insight into what football means to communities.<BR><BR>Fixtures here:<BR><BR>http://www.wisa.org.uk/<BR><BR>Keller is at present spurs number one goalie, but that could change at any time. Don't make plans based on seeing a specific player at a specific club as he could well be transfered between now and when you arrive, especially as US players tend to be finge players in any team. <BR><BR>Feel free to email if you want specifics<BR>

Kate - didn't realise you were a fellow Villan!

But Tony, I thought only us downtrodden Brummies were Villans! You have to be pretty loyal to put up with Dirty Doug and Turnip Head!

Try Ticketmaster at <BR>www.ticketmaster.co.uk, then click on Sport, and then on football. More tickets become available closer to the games. A word of warning though - avoid games at Millwall (sorry to any Millwall fans out there but you know what I mean).

Check out the club's websites. I've never used a ticket broker, and have always gotten tickets through the clubs. But I haven't gone to any of the really big matches. I did get Tottenham v. Liverpool two seasons ago just by calling the Tottenham line at 5:30 a.m. on the day tickets went on sale. But White Hart Lane is a bit of a dump (I've been to 5 Premiership stadiums, and it was definitely the worst)--the rows of seats are so close together that even at 5'7", my knees were in the back of the guy in front of me the whole match.<BR><BR>Kate-first time I've heard Villa called glorious! But I'm hoping to catch Liverpool there for 'Pool's season opener.<BR><BR>