Away Travel FAQs

Firstly we need to know how many tickets we have. When this is confirmed we look at who we can guarantee tickets to initially, based on how many points everyone has. Members on higher points levels will be considered first and then we'll move down the points levels until we have offered roughly the same number of people a tickets as we have available, e.g. If there are 5000 people on 2+ points and we have 5100 tickets we will wait until everyone on 2 points and above has applied before offering anyone on fewer points the chance to apply. There will always be a deadline set for them to do this by.

If there are some tickets left but not enough to give everyone on the next level of points a ticket, these tickets will be sold on a first come first served basis to the next points level until all tickets have been allocated.

FIFA guidelines recommend that the visiting team should receive 5% of the stadium capacity, so this depends on the size of the venue we are playing in for each game. For the current FIFA World Cup 2014 campaign we have negotiated an uplift to a minimum 8% with the teams in our group. When playing in the Euro Championships run by UEFA the criteria is also a minimum of 5% of the stadium capacity. We always try to secure as many tickets as possible for our supporters through negotiations with the relevant FA.

The Scotland Supporters Club has a maximum membership of 35,000 and the highest number of away match tickets we have ever had is 11,500. So there has to be a system which ensures those who travel most frequently and support the team are able to obtain tickets even where there is a high level of demand. This does not mean that the same people are always receiving tickets as anyone can build up points but when it comes to very popular games, regular attendance at away games is rewarded.

One point is allocated for attending each of the most recent ten away games. It may be more difficult to get a ticket for games which are very high profile or popular so you have to first accrue some points to be able to apply for these. The majority of games over the last few years have been available to everyone so it is not as difficult as you may think to build up your points. Attending friendly matches, where demand is usually not as high, is a good way to acquire points as it will be more difficult to obtain a ticket for games such as World Cup or Euro qualifiers.

Here is an example list of 10 real away games along with a note of how many points were required to apply for a ticket.

* indicates that all members who requested a ticket got one once we had worked through all the points levels.

 ^ ballots were in operation at the time of these matches.

For the Luxembourg match we actually returned just over 170 tickets. 

Most members will be contacted by email with information on how to book your ticket. If we don't have an email address for you, this will be sent by post. Away tickets are booked by phone and online.

Our ticket allocation is normally confirmed around 6-8 weeks before the game and we'll begin the allocation process as soon as we have this information. You'll normally be contacted by email or post around this time if you are eligible to apply.

Sometimes, attending a friendly away match can give you a wee gem of a point that would come in really useful for future matches. And, remember…..it takes about 2 – 2 ½ years for 1 match to move through the away match table so if you do have 1 or 2 points up your sleeve these could be really beneficial for those bigger much more popular qualification matches that everyone wants to go to.

For example, if you’d gone to Cardiff which was the easiest of the last 10 to travel to and you’d have 1 point. We actually returned >200 tickets to the FA of Wales so any SSC member could have got a ticket directly from us.

It is against the SSC rules to transfer tickets, particularly for away matches.  Neither you nor the member who applied will receive a point if you do this but both your memberships may be affected.  If anyone who applies for a ticket later decides they cannot use it, they should advise us as soon as possible so this ticket can be re-allocated fairly.

We do not recommend making travel arrangements until you have been guaranteed an official ticket.  We do understand that the cost of travelling can increase the nearer to travelling you book, however the choice to do this is at each members own discretion and we cannot be responsible if you find you do not qualify for a ticket after booking.

We will negotiate for as many tickets as possible for every away match and we will be trying hard to influence our opponents in the next campaign to confirm their match venue at least 120 days in advance of the match (instead of the UEFA National Teams’ Committee regulation that states 60 days) however it’s your membership and  if you can  do just a little bit of ground-work and try to attend as many away matches as possible (we know it’s not always easy!) it will help you in the long-run.

Tickets received from players or won in competitions will not be eligible to receive a point.  You will only receive a point if you apply and receive a ticket through the normal application process.

No.  For security reasons, we cannot condone members travelling without an official ticket and because of this have never allocated points for doing so.

The Scottish FA do not organise travel directly , however Thomson Sport are our official Travel partner and they offer various SSC members travel packages for matches.

visit them at www.thomsonsport.com for more details
 

Only the most recent ten away matches count towards your total number of points so the maximum you can have at any time is 10.

There is no minimum age for attending however members under 16 must be accompanied by an eligible adult member. In the event of a ballot the child and adult will be entered separately. Both must be successful in the ballot for the child to attend although if only the adult is successful they can still take up their ticket.

A travel guide is sent with every official match ticket. If you would like additional copies these can be downloaded or viewed in video form in our travel guide section of this site.

Travel guides are not produced for friendly matches.

No, attending games at Hampden does not count towards your away point's total. All members are guaranteed a home match ticket and most take this up for the majority of games, so to allocate a point for this would be misleading as although your total would increase, so too would thousands of other members. So really this would not give you a better chance of obtaining a ticket but instead mean that the number of points required becomes higher for everyone.

We have little control over the facilities available in each country for ticket collection; this can range from an actual ticketing window to a caravan! Also this might not always be located in at the stadium itself. Members can't collect tickets for their family and friends so every member would be required to collect individually and our availability in the country is normally limited to match day only. It would therefore not always be feasible to ensure that everyone got to collect their ticket in time for kick off.