Come on you Red-eyes! The Liverpool fans flying over 3,000 miles in less than 24 hours so they don’t miss a kick

Matty Johnson and friends will watch the Carabao Cup clash at Aston Villa before flying off to the Club World Cup
Away days | Matty Johnson (right) and his friends will be embarking on quite the mission
@MrMattyjohnson/Evening Standard
David Lynch20 November 2019

For even the most die-hard of football supporters, two games in under 24 hours – and over 3,000 miles apart – would probably be considered a bridge too far.

But not for Matty Johnson.

This Liverpool fan is currently preparing to do exactly that when his team contest an unorthodox double-header in December.

In a bid to ease the Reds’ seemingly unworkable fixture pile-up next month, Jurgen Klopp has agreed to split his squad in half so that they can play twice in two days.

On December 17, a youthful Liverpool XI will head to Birmingham to take on Aston Villa in the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup.

Photo: @MrMattyjohnson/Evening Standard
@MrMattyjohnson/Evening Standard

And the following evening, a more recognisable first team will run out at Education City Stadium in Qatar to kick off their Club World Cup campaign.

These extraordinary arrangements have, of course, been made in order to ease the workload on Klopp’s players, but what about football’s great afterthought: the fans?

Well, bizarrely, it has actually worked out quite well for some, as 25-year-old Matty explains to Standard Sport.

He says: “Before all the fiasco with the League Cup came about, it was always the case that we wanted to do it, because Qatar isn’t going to come around like a European trip.

“It’s one of the places in the world that you’re probably never going to go back to.

Photo: @MrMattyjohnson/Evening Standard

“My mate, Doug, is in charge of all the bookings and everything, he’s got an eye for a deal, and he found a route flying from Birmingham on the Wednesday morning and back on the Sunday morning to Birmingham.

“Then it all came about with Aston Villa in the League Cup on the Tuesday night and we were obviously staying in Birmingham that night so it made perfect sense to go to the game.

“It was a case of it just happened for us.”

All being well, Matty should land in Doha three hours before Liverpool’s first fixture of the tournament: a semi-final against the winners of Monterrey’s second-round clash with Al Sadd or Hienghene Sport.

He will then watch his team compete in either the final or third-place play-off on December 21 before flying back for Christmas or, perhaps more importantly, a trip to Leicester City on Boxing Day.

Photo: @MrMattyjohnson/Evening Standard
@MrMattyjohnson/Evening Standard

The Chester native certainly appreciates his good fortune in terms of being able to take in all three games across that crazy four-day period - not least because he knows many home-and-away supporters who will be forced to miss out for the first time in years.

He explains: “What a lot of Liverpool fans pride themselves on is the ability to go to every single game.

“A lot of fans will have already booked their flights to Doha prior to the League Cup draw - which is what we did to be fair.

“To most people who are outside of the loop on football, they’ll look at that and think, ‘It’s just a League Cup quarter-final draw against Aston Villa, you don’t have to go to that you can watch it at home’.

“That will annoy these people, though, because they love Liverpool Football Club, they love going to the match with their friends, their family - it’s like a ritual.

“I know a lot of people who get into Doha on the Tuesday, they’re absolutely livid.

Photo: @MrMattyjohnson/Evening Standard
@MrMattyjohnson/Evening Standard

“They were under the impression that the game was going to be in January, so they could go to Doha, come back, regroup in terms of money, and then go to Birmingham.”

Liverpool have released detailed guidance for fans planning to travel to Qatar, a country where being drunk in public and sexual relations outside of marriage remain illegal.

On what promises to be an unusual trip, Matty adds: “It’s not like a typical European away game, you’ve got to be careful because of different rules, different laws.

“You’ve got to bear in mind that you’ve got to be respectful as well as enjoy it at the same time.

“It’s not going to be a case of getting plastered in bars until 5am, mostly because you won’t be able to afford three rounds and their rules are different in terms of walking in the streets drunk!

“The experience will be the most important thing about it, you’ll get to see aspects of the world.”

And what of the prize on offer in Doha?

Like every Liverpool fan, Matty is keen to see his club become world champions for the first time ever by taking their winning habit to an entirely new continent.

He says: “Winning the Champions League, we saw it in Madrid, we saw it in Istanbul, and further in the past.

“To see them win the Club World Cup on another continent, it’d be strange I think.

“We’re obviously so used to winning things in Europe or England and, it won’t quite be Wembley Stadium or the Wanda Metropolitano, but the Education City Stadium will be one of those names that will be remembered in terms of winning stadiums for Liverpool.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in