A well-known Sheffield Wednesday supporter will continue his run of attendances at England matches this summer - having initially felt there was ‘no chance’ he could afford to go to the World Cup.

Organisers of this year’s tournament in North America have received widespread condemnation for the price of tickets and other facilities, with the BBC reporting that in a wave of ticket openings last week, prices ranged from $140 (£106) to $2,985 (£2,261). The report suggests the staggering average price of the tickets displayed for sale was $358 (£271). Flights, accommodation and other essentials have also been hiked up in price.

Initial news was that tickets had gone on sale for several thousand pounds a time, leaving die-hard home and away England supporters reeling - or unable to go. One such fan was Owls season ticket holder Paul Gregory, better known across the country as ‘Tango’, who has been to every consecutive England match for years including the last seven major tournaments.

England have been drawn alongside Croatia, Ghana and Panama in the group stage. Paul was among those to have resigned himself to watching events unfold on television, describing the ticket system ‘appalling’ - and stating that he felt the World Cup was being ‘killed off’ for loyal fans.

Having written to tournament organisers in North America to describe their dissatisfaction with the ticketing arrangements, the FA were able to deliver a reduced price offering for its ‘top cappers’ - those who have attended more home and away matches than anyone else in recent years. Paul and his partner Rachel have earned the top billing of 62 active caps and so last week were able to secure cut-price tickets for each of the group games - which for a bottom-category seat come out at $60 - or around £45.

‘Top cappers’ who travel the world following football develop a nose for a bargain and the travelling party ‘Tango’ is a part of have already scoped out car hire and accommodation at bargain rates. Even with the reduced ticket offering, he thinks the total cost of his trip - including warm-up games and should England reach the final - will cost him a total of around £6,000.

“The way it's been set up, I mean, you look at some of the ticket prices and they are ridiculous,” Paul told The Star. “It's way out of anybody's price range, unless you're already living in the States or something like that, but I'd say the FAs really looked after us well.

“Look it's not as bad as what it could have been. I wouldn't have spent the money on the tickets at that price that I came out with initially, because that would just be ridiculous. And I feel sorry for people who may have to pay that.

“People have holidays all over the place, but the places I've seen, the places you go to, they’re places that people never even think about going to. It’s taken me to Serbia, we’ve just come back from Albania, what a fantastic place that was. The places that you go to aren’t the usual places. Kazakhstan, all these places, I was coming here and there, you start blocking off all the country and all around Europe to where you've been. Football has been great to me in that way.”

This summer will represent the first time Tango - so named for his resemblance to the character in a 1990s soft drink advertising campaign - will have been to the US. Orlando comes first, then on to Tampa and beyond.

Beyond his preparations for the summer, Paul has been busy with his ‘One in Every Corner’ campaign, which seeks to install defibrillators to all 92 football league grounds in the country. The campaign is in memory of his daughter Lauren, who tragically died aged just 29 in 2023.

“I'm working full-time and everything else,” he said, having secured defibs to Lincoln City last week to bring the running total of clubs secured to 23. “It’s a lot of effort but it's for Lauren, so it's well worth it. I’m proud of what we’ve done so far.

“Now the plaques are all going up next to the Defibs at all different grounds. I've just had the plaques come from down in Portsmouth. It makes you proud, seeing your daughters, they've still been out there.

“It's hard work, but as I say, it's one thing that we're going to keep on doing, and obviously we need all the support we can get to follow it through. We will get to the rest of the 92 clubs and Premier League clubs now, they're getting involved.

“They serve more than the stadiums. We went to West Brom and the amount of industry and everything round there, we were working out the coverage of how many people you'd actually be covering by having the Defibs there and available. It covers from housing estates, factories, football fans that's in there that have concerts and stuff like that. They’ll cover millions of people.”