A continent where you won’t have to sell a kidney to afford the cover price… world-class football in Morocco that’s just the ticket.
Hosts Morocco kick off AFCON, the Greatest Show in Africa, on Sunday against Comoros (no us neither) in Rabat.
It turns out that Comoros is an archipelago of three islands north-west of Madagascar (see every day is a schoolday).
The best bit of all for those who have tickets, and the curtain-raiser is sold out, is that you can buy one for MAD150.
Which is, wait for it, just £12 in our British pound money.
Pay it again Casablanca
And is MAD right… and you’ve still got that 150 Dinar burning a hole in your pocket.
Which if you’re around Casablanca on Monday you can pay it again and take in the Mali v Zambia match.
And still have 50 Dinar left for a roadside tagine or a Turkish tea.
Now it might be that you’re not of African heritage yourself but maybe you can pick a team from a favourite club player.
And Liverpool fans who haven’t fallen out with Mo Salah and fear he might never play for your club again.
More Mo, Mo
Well, here’s a Boxing Day special for you.
You could see the King of Egypt play for his nation against South Africa in Agadir, again for just £8.
There does seem to be a £4 premium on host nation Morocco and a higher demand.
Now once we get into the round of 16 the tickets soar to MAD150, or £12.
If your team, or the one you’ve adopted, have managed to get through to the last eight then the price of a ticket will jump again.
To a hardly credit card busting MAD200, or £16.
While the semi-finals come in at MAD300, or £24.
And bear in mind you’d be lucky to get a slice of pizza and a lager in the concourse of any American stadium for that.
Final price is tickety-boo
So your favourites get all the way to the final.
Well, at MAD400, or £32, you’d be mad not to buy a ticket now so you’re not disappointed later.
It’s clear the AFCON organisers know and appreciate football fans, more so than FIFA and next year’s World Cup,
Where Scotland fans, who remember have been waiting for 28 years to see their favourites play in the tourney, will have to fork out.
The Tartan Arny learning at the outset that they would need to pay at least £134 for the opening Haiti game.
And £198 for the glamour final Group game with Brazil.
Until fan pressure has shamed FIFA into relenting with a £45 tier ticket.
Although we’d have to do some more drilling on how availalbe they are and in what numbers.
The Sky’s the limit
Kindly our friends at Sky Sports have done the heavy lifting for us here and worked it out for us.
And even more generously they’ve given us a sample for both Scotland, as well as their favourites England, making the final.
With some tickets there at $450.
Add in too the comparative distances for fans travelling around AFCON and the FIFA World Cup and you see there’s better value there too.
With the World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico stretched across 2,800 miles.
As opposed to the either 55 miles from Rabat to Casablanca or 466 miles from Fez to Agadir.
And with Ryanair flying us out from our home airport here in Edinburgh from £39 return then it’s a no-brainer.
And with the money saved you can shoot to Marrakech, the Sahara and Moroccan roll.
