Wikivoyage:Past events/World Cup 2006

Tickets

Regular tickets come in four categories (1-4), with category 1 being the best pitchside seats (best views) and category 4 being for those behind the goals (worst views). Prices start from €35 (group games, category 4) and go up to €600 (final, category 1). See the FIFA site for ticket details. The fifth and final ticket sales period started on May 1st, 2006.
From 1 February to 31 March 2005 world-wide the first phase of the ticket sales of the football WM took place. Scarcely over one million humans from 195 countries applied in this first two-month sales phase for the 812,000 tickets. 8,7 million valid ticket orders were received, from which 6.25 million originate from Germany. 2,3 million orders from one manipulation attempt started from the USA and 1.3 million double orders were not accepted. Thus come on each ticket of first sales sale over 10 applicants. Already after the first 48 hours of sales sale the demand had exceeded the offer. Everyone could receive maximally in each case four tickets over a lot procedure for seven plays. It does not take place treatment in a chronological order. In an do-VG-EXAMINED procedure and under notarial supervision on 15 April 2005 the first order phase was drawn by lots. On 22 April 2005 all applicants receive to email, in which one communicates: 1. "due to the large demand for tickets for the FIFA soccer world championship Germany 2006 (TM) the examined and accepted ticket requests of a drawing had to be submitted. Unfortunately no tickets for the FIFA soccer world championship Germany could be assigned to you 2006 (TM)." or 2. "we are pleased that the following tickets for the FIFA soccer world championship Germany are assigned to you 2006 (TM): Selection 1: # play number: Play crew (and/or NR) - play crew, date, price category: ". 208,455 applicants have themselves the tickets of first sales sale secured. The majority of the 900,000 applicants therefore gets a refusal. 80 per cent of the applicants come from Germany.

Accommodation

Do not fool yourself believing that you will be able to arrive in a city and find accommodation easily. Chances are you will spend several hours searching for accommodation, assuming you can find anything in the first place. Reserve before you depart and always carry a confirmation from the hotel, should they happen to lose your reservation.

By air

Several options for those flying directly to Germany are Frankfurt am Main (The major hub in Germany), Berlin, or Munich. Each of those cities will host several games or once in you can leave the city and take a train to another host city.
Some travellers may find arriving in another European city a more economical alternative. Occasionally travellers leaving from Philadelphia and flying to Paris and then taking a discount airliner to Frankfurt can save up to several hundred dollars.

By train

Additionally, if you are planning to travel around the continent you may want to check out these other Wikivoyage articles:

• Rail travel in Europe

By bus

See the Germany article for general details. Deutsche Bahn are running some special deals for World Cup fans. The Weltmeister-Ticket enables you to travel from wherever you are staying in Germany to your match on second class trains, but including the fast ICE trains, as well as night trains with a supplement fee. It is only valid in conjunction with a valid World Cup ticket and costs, depending on the length of the journey, €54 (up to 200 km), €74 (from 201 - 350 km), or €90 (above 351 km) note that the prices reflect the years that Germany has won the World Cup. The Weltmeister-Pass is for anyone planning to travel a lot during the World Cup. No World Cup ticket is needed, and it is valid for the five weeks of the World Cup (from 7 June to 11 July 2006). It costs €349 for 2nd class travel and €549 for 1st class for unlimited journeys, including night trains with a supplement fee.

The host cities will be Berlin, Leipzig, Cologne, Munich, Frankfurt am Main, Dortmund, Hannover, Hamburg, Kaiserslautern, Nuremberg, Stuttgart, and Gelsenkirchen.
The official match schedule is available online. All of the first-round matches that will eventually eliminate sixteen of the thirty-two teams are scheduled and set; in addition, the dates, times, and locations of the later-round matches are also listed on the schedule.
Yellowikis has addresses and maps for all the World Cup World_Cup_2006 stadia

• Berlin
• Cologne
• Dortmund
• Frankfurt (am Main)
• Gelsenkirchen
• Hamburg
• Hanover
• Kaiserslautern
• Leipzig
• Munich
• Nuremberg
• Stuttgart

World Cup merchandise is already on sale:

• German flags, face paint
• GOLEO VI, the loveable lion mascot
• Official replica soccer ball

If you aren't lucky enough to have tickets to the games, you can still visit Germany during the World Cup for the atmosphere. Germany is already well and truly in WM-Fieber (World Cup fever), and almost all towns and cities in Germany will have public places where they will televise the games live. You could try going to the host cities to be with other fans. Another alternative is to head to where your team is staying and maybe sit in on an open training session. Here's the list of where teams will be based:

• Angola - Ringhotel Celler Tor, Celle
• Argentina - Hotel Herzogs Park, Herzogenaurach
• Australia - Wald Schlosshotel Friedrichsruhe, Öhringen
• Brazil (Group stage) - Kempinski Hotel, Falkenstein; (Knockout stage) - Schlosshotel Lerbach, Bergisch Gladbach
• Costa Rica - Holiday Inn Walldorf, Heidelberg
• Croatia - Dorint Resort & Spa, Bad Brückenau
• Czech Republic - Lindner Hotel & Sporting Club Wiesensee, Westerburg
• Ecuador - Bristol Hotel, Bad Kissingen
• England - Schlosshotel Bühlerhöhe, Baden-Baden
• France - Schlosshotel Münchhausen, Aerzen
• Germany - Schlosshotel Grunewald, Berlin
• Ghana - Maritim Hotel, Würzburg
• Iran - Hotel Krone, Friedrichshafen
• Italy - Landhaus Milser, Duisburg
• Ivory Coast - Hotel Clostermanns Hof, Niederkassel
• Japan - Hilton Bonn, Bonn
• Mexico - Hotel Freizeit In, Göttingen
• Netherlands - Parkhotel Adler, Hinterzarten
• Paraguay - Sport Academy Oberhaching, Baden-Baden
• Poland - Sport Academy Barsinghausen, Hanover
• Portugal - Sport Academy Klosterpforte, Marienfeld
• Saudi Arabia - Hotel Dolce, Bad Nauheim
• Serbia and Montenegro - Hotel Weissenburg, Billerbeck
• South Korea - Grandhotel Schloss Bensberg, Cologne
• Spain - Sport Academy Kaiserau, Kamen
• Sweden - Park Hotel, Bremen
• Switzerland - Kurhotel Fürstenhof, Bad Bertrich
• Togo - Hotel Waltersbühl, Wangen
• Trinidad and Tobago - Hotel Landhaus Wachtelhof, Rotenburg
• Tunisia - Hotel Mercure, Schweinfurt
• Ukraine - Seminaris SeeHotel, Potsdam
• United States - Park Hyatt Hamburg, Hamburg

Germany is mostly very safe. However, there is an increasing concern for racism-based hate-attack in Germany, which seems to be raising in the last few months due to the coming World Cup. It is said that the German police are prepared for such things. Nevertheless, try your best to stay safe especially if you are obviously non-Caucasian and do report to the police for any threat as you might save other people.

Important telephone numbers

• Police: 110
• Emergency: 112

• Visit all the other interesting German cities that are not venues of the World Cup, like Bremen and Dresden
• Prague, the Czech Republic's capital is easily accessible from Munich.
• Warsaw, Poland is a several hour train ride from Berlin's Ostbahnhof train station.
• Brussels can be reached from Cologne in a few hours on a high speed train.
• Salzburg (city), Austria can be reached from Munich.
• Basel, Zürich and Berne are easily reachable from Germany by Train in around 2-3 hours (Stuttgart, Munich) or 3-4 hours (Dortmund). In those cities the games of Euro 2008 will be held, so if you like to have a look around the new stadiums in Berne or Basel, they are usually opened for public when there are no games held there.