England fan spends £40,000 house deposit on World Cup trip
34-year-old follows England team's journey with father across the USA
Last updated 15 hours ago
A devoted England football fan from West Sussex has spent his £40,000 house deposit taking his father on a memorable World Cup tour across the United States.
Jack Goodwin, from Chichester, told the Press Association he has secured hotels, flights, and tickets to every potential England match, including the final in New Jersey on 19th July, if the team progresses.
The 34-year-old said his tickets, bought through the FIFA ballot, were all at face value but still amounted to a significant expense.
Describing the experience as a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," Goodwin explained that he and his father began their journey in Dallas and plan to follow the team all the way to the final.
Goodwin said they were "sweating" when Panama held England to a draw at half-time in their final group game, which threatened their ticket validity.
Mr Goodwin said his dad’s “confidence” meant they booked flights to Atlanta a few weeks ago.
He told PA: “We booked them a few weeks ago, so we were pretty confident.
“I mean, my dad was pretty confident, so I went with his confidence.”
Explaining how he had funded the trip, Mr Goodwin said his tickets were all at face value, but were still “mega expensive”.
“It’s been very expensive. I saved up for a house and I blew my whole house deposit taking me and my dad out,” he said.
Questioned on how much he had spent, he continued: “How long’s a piece of string? A good £40,000.
“We’ve got everything face value but that’s not to say it was cheap – it was mega expensive still.”
He added: “Well, I’ve got no kids, I’ve got no wife, so why not?
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
Mr Goodwin described the cost of World Cup final tickets as a “joke”.
He said: “For the group games… I think it was around 350 dollars. We were in the Gods.
“But we’ve got category one tickets now for the next few games, and they were 600 dollars face value.
“The ticket for the final, which is a joke, was through the England Supporters Club.
“Face value for category two was 8,000 Australian dollars, so about £4,000.”
He added: “We’ve met a lot of people that did ballots and didn’t get tickets so we’re extremely lucky to be here to be honest.”