Football: World Cup - In France Without A Ticket

Nicholas Harling's daily quest to see a World Cup match: Day 16

The quadrennial surge of interest in football shown by the fair sex does not fortunately include Susan, the Nigerian wife of my Belgian friend. Her one World Cup excursion to Nantes for Brazil v Morocco was more than she could handle, I was delighted to discover, when I turned up at the Parc des Princes yesterday for Belgium's game against South Korea. I had never met the lady but the introduction, so far as I was concerned, for purely selfish reasons, could wait. For four days I had been on a promise. If she didn't turn up I could have her ticket. She didn't so I was in at cost price, 145 francs. Even though other women - as well as men - were rather more enthusiastic, the touts certainly weren't making a killing.

Total games: 16. Total cost price: 5,880fr. Total price paid: 6,055fr. Two failures to get in.