Okay Team! This post follows on from my original post about Planning for the FIFA World Cup.
Last I left you, we had some tickets, and knew where the games were, but had no idea who we were seeing! So we had booked some flexible accommodation and flights there.
The last of the qualifying rounds were being played, and finally it happened… the Socceroos qualify for the world cup!

Rueters: Steve Christo
OMG, would our tickets be Socceroos games? We had to wait until the 1st of December for the draw to take place, and *breath of anticipation*… no, we didn’t get Socceroos tickets. We can’t go to the World Cup and not support our own country! Now what?!
In the meantime we bought cute shirts. We’re cute.

Time to Take on the World!
Okay, so the second random selection draw opened on the 5th of December, but we hit a problem… the ONLY Socceroos game we could make it to was at the same time as another game we already had tickets for, so therefore the system wouldn’t let me apply for a ticket. After a few days pondering, it hit me… DER, MAKE AN ACCOUNT FOR MATT. Problem solved.
On the 25th of Jan, we received an email from FIFA letting us know that our Fan ID had been sent out, and asked if we had received it. After a week I responded that we hadn’t. The VERY NEXT DAY, our Fan ID arrived *smh*.
February came around and I was getting nervous… were we getting Socceroos tickets? The answer? YESSSS YAAAAAY!
Ok, next problem… We had to readjust our schedule to include a new host city – Sochi! Luckily I booked our accommodation through bookings.com, with free cancellation. So it was just a matter of cancelling that accommodation and rebooking new accommodation!
As a side note: the Smart Traveller website advised that we must check in with the Russian government at every hotel, or make sure that the hotel does it for us.
Now we just have to book all our between city flights and sell our extra ticket through FIFA on April 18!
Oh, one last thing. We totally got Socceroos jerseys and they’re super cute!!
Are you going to the FIFA World Cup 2018? Or have you been to a past one? Tell me all about it!