England superfan endures 17-hour, three-bus ordeal to reach Atlanta World Cup match

Steve Jackson, 62, from Bournemouth, arrived at Atlanta bus station exhausted after a 17-and-a-half-hour journey across three coaches from New York, where England had played their previous World Cup fixture.

“That was an absolute nightmare — a total nightmare,” Jackson told the Mirror at the station. “I left New York at 6pm and just arrived here at 11.30am. I didn’t get much sleep — it was so uncomfortable. There wasn’t a charging point for my phone. There were three changes of buses and we had seven pick-ups.”

Jackson was among the first England supporters to reach the searingly hot city. His decision to travel by bus was driven by cost: one-way flights from New York to Atlanta were fetching up to £700 during the tournament.

The eye-watering expense of following England in the United States has become a recurring theme among travelling supporters, many of whom say the prices are pricing out ordinary fans. It has been noticeable at this tournament that a large proportion of those who have made the trip are older and in higher-paid professions than at some previous World Cups.

Gary Taylor, 64, a successful estate agent from Harold Wood, Essex, and one of the Football Association’s 500 so-called “top cappers”, secured his own final ticket for £46 — but his girlfriend Jo Lewis paid £3,170 for hers. “Fifa are taking the average fan for granted,” Taylor said. “People just can’t afford these prices. They’re disgustingly high. Once this tournament is over there must be a full look at how they can cut ticket prices for the 2030 tournament. They really are punishing the working class man and woman.”

Alan Thomas, 67, from Reading, was equally blunt. “This must be the last tournament that Fifa can get away with this,” he said. “The prices have risen so much since Qatar four years ago — it’s got to stop.”

For Jackson, the immediate priority after stepping off the bus was rather more modest: a lie-down and, in his own words, “definitely a couple of beers later”.