Any Bafana Bafana supporter who has tried to book flights and match tickets, and apply for a visa, will no doubt agree with a GIGAcalculator ranking of nations based on the true cost of attending the group stage, which combines flight and travel costs with average flight duration and the difficulty of obtaining a visa.
Haiti and Iran were not included in the list due to travel restrictions that are in place.
South Africa is top of the list of 38 nations for which there is data, with a difficulty score of 9.53 out of 10, ahead of Uzbekistan (9.18) and Ivory Coast (8.86).
South Africa’s numbers were an average return flight cost of R27,053 from Johannesburg for a group game, an average travel duration of 19.3 hours (no fans have a longer journey), a top difficulty score of 20 for visa applications, and match ticket costs for all games of R8,759, which is perhaps generous.
According to this scale and the research, no fans have it harder in trying to get to the World Cup than Bafana Bafana supporters.
South Africa take on co-hosts Mexico in the tournament opener in Mexico City on June 11, before a clash against the Czech Republic in Atlanta on June 18. They then return to Mexico to meet South Korea in Monterrey on June 24.
The rest of the top 10 is Tunisia (8.67), Egypt (8.54), Argentina (8.50), Qatar (8.45), Ghana (8.15), Jordan (8.05) and Paraguay (8.05).
It should be stated that the data does not include the Democratic Republic of Congo, or any other nations that qualified in March’s FIFA window, but Morocco is the top-ranked African side in terms of ease on the scale, with a difficulty score of 6.03.
According to the research, the easiest journeys will be made by fans from France (2.99), Norway (3.43), England (3.81), Colombia (4.00) and Germany (4.85).