England fan spends £40,000 house deposit on World Cup trip for him and his dad
Jack Goodwin, 34, (left) and Harrison Killick, 34, in Downtown Atlanta, ahead of England's game against DR Congo in the FIFA World Cup 2026.
Picture:
PA
An England fan spent his £40,000 house deposit on taking his Dad to watch England play in the World Cup. Jack Goodwin, from Chichester in West Sussex, said he had booked his hotels, flights and tickets to every game England can play in until the final in New Jersey on July 19.The 34-year-old said he "blew my whole house deposit" on the trip - which included shelling out £4,000 on seats at the final. Mr Goodwin, who did not give his father’s name, told the Press Association: “Me and my dad, we’ve been here since Dallas.“We’ve done Dallas, Boston, New York, arrived in Atlanta… and we’re going all the way to the final and we’re going to watch us win the World Cup.” Read more: Thomas Tuchel says big names exiting World Cup can help calm England as Three Lions gear up for DR Congo clashRead more: Scotland's World Cup adventure shows football at its very best. FIFA must stop pricing real fans out, writes Gordon Brown
Speaking ahead of England’s first knockout game against the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Atlanta, Mr Goodwin said: “We’re going to smash them 4-0 and we’re going to play Mexico in the Azteca this Sunday which will be the dream game of all games, the creme of the creme.”The Stoke City fan said he was “sweating” when Panama held the Three Lions to a 0-0 draw at half-time in their final group game.“We’ve pre-booked everything now to the final – hotels, tickets, everything sorted.“We were sweating because we got all our tickets through the FIFA ballot – if we didn’t top the group, all of our tickets would have become invalid.”
England's first knockout game against the DRC is on Wednesday .
Picture:
Getty
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.”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.
