How Much Will it Cost to Follow England at the Euros?

As the 2024 edition of the European Championships looms over the summer sporting horizon, the opportunity to watch football’s greatest attempt to conquer the continent for the next four years will appeal to many, and part of that appeal will come via the medium of watching England.

With the hurt counter now standing at 58 years, Gareth Southgate and his players will look to go one better than 2020’s delayed tournament. That summer of 2021 saw penalty-based heartbreak in the final as Italy came out on top from 12 yards, and now it is time to try to right that wrong.

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The previous edition of the competition was hosted across multiple venues and what was meant to be a celebration of UEFA’s international crown jewel was nothing more than a logistical disaster, admittedly they could do nothing about the effects of Covid-19 but logistically it all fell flat.

Too many venues across too many nations meant that the European Championships lost some of its charm. However, with one single nation playing the role of host for 2024, all eyes are on Germany and their ability to host a football party.

Not only are Germany a football powerhouse but they live and breathe the game from a fandom point of view and because of this, they have stadiums that are largely the envy of Europe and perhaps more importantly, have travelling supporters visit from further afield on a regular basis.

A large contingent of that international travelling army comes from England and with the two nations being in relatively close proximity, we can soon expect a large contingent of English fans descending on cities such as Berlin, Munich and Frankfurt.

Not only will there be a large contingent of English fans on German soil but they will also be expecting their national heroes to go all the way to glory and with that in mind, it serves up a rather important question:

How much would it cost to truly follow England in Germany this summer?

When we say truly, we mean a fan that goes all the way. From England’s first group stage game to the final. No just dipping in for a single knockout game to show how much you love Harry Kane and company; we are talking about the fullest commitment possible.

This means flying into Germany the day before England’s opening game in Group C against Serbia on June 16th, it also means flying out the day after England finally win another international trophy since their World Cup win 1966.

To do this, we are going to have to book some flights and we also need a host city of our own.

Therefore, we are going to fly out from London Heathrow and arrive in Dusseldorf on June 15th and then we will make the return journey exactly a month later.

Although this may be a popular route over the next couple of months, we have managed to book a return flight for this lengthy span and one that has cost us £341.49 courtesy of Lufthansa. 

Not a lot of change out of £350, but in all fairness are pockets are going to have to go a lot deeper than that. That is because we need someway to stay for the month and although there are plenty of options within the city of Dusseldorf, we are going to need an element of financial caution here.

A 30-day stay at the Sure Hotel by Best Western Ambassador is not going to be the most luxurious of stays, but when you are in the nitty-gritty of tournament football, a practical base is far more important than all out opulence. 

Therefore, this 3-star offering offers us 30 nights’ accommodation at the cost of £4,908. It has a 7.1 review on Booking.com and that will be more than enough for us.

The flight and the accommodation is sorted but it has cost us a total of £5,249.49 and we have not even set foot in a stadium yet. Of course, we never said this experience was going to be a cheap one but it certainly will be memorable if England do go one better this time around.

Which leads us nicely on to the next phase of the operation, sourcing the seven coveted match tickets. Somehow, we have been incredibly lucky in the ballot and scooped one for each England game in the European Championships.

With that luck comes more expense and on the assumption that we selected CAT 2 tickets for the ballot, this how much they would cost individually: 

A total of £1,569.50 is added to our ever-growing spreadsheet and unsurprisingly, the cost of England goes up the further they go in the tournament. With that figure added to the mix, we can see what the ongoing total cost are is:

£6,818.99 is the latest figure in our quest to see England go all the way but now we also have to get to each of the seven stadiums from Dusseldorf’s main train station. After research ticket prices for trains there and back for the respective days, this is how it panned out: 

Here we can add another £357.77 to the expense column, the cheapest travel would be England’s quarter-final which thankfully is held in our home town for the month and therefore, using the U-Bahn for £5 can offset the most expensive.

That would be the trip to Frankfurt on June 20th as England face Denmark in a repeat of the semi-final three years ago. To get the train from Dusseldorf to the home of Eintracht Frankfurt, it would cost £107.97.

While although the trip to Berlin on the day of the final only costs £71.34 by comparison, it is roughly a six-hour journey and if England do go all the way, it will mean getting a train the following morning and getting back to Dusseldorf for 6am – leaving us very little time, but enough to then fly home.

With just under £360 to be added, here is the running total of costs:

We have breached £7,000 and that is before we have had anything to eat or drink at the stadiums. With Germany being the home of good beer and sausage, it is only natural that we are going to partake in both of these culinary delights at each of the seven matches.

Good news for England supporters as a 500ml serving of beer and a sausage is going to cost approximately £7. Considering that you do well to even get change from £7 for a pint back home, this sounds like a bargain by comparison.

Another £48.76 in the expense column for match day sustenance and we probably need to consider a fighting fund of £1,000 across the 30 days. This additional £33.33 a day allows for purchases such as non-football meals, toiletries and maybe a bit of tournament memorabilia.

This means and additional £1,048.76 is added as our final set of costs and when we add this to our previous running total, the results are now in:

If you plan to follow England from their first kick of this summer’s European Championships to their last, it is going to set you back more than £8,000. £8,225.52 to be exact when you account for flights, a stay in Germany throughout, match tickets, transport, food and drink (both matchday and non).

However, if you are someone who undergoes this adventure and sees Harry Kane lift the European Championship trophy, then this expenditure will surely be worth every penny.