Advertisement

Swiss trio travel to World Cup in vintage tractor after 'drunk' decision

The group of friends took 12 days to travel from Lucerne to Russia for Switzerland’s match with Serbia (Reuters)
The group of friends took 12 days to travel from Lucerne to Russia for Switzerland’s match with Serbia (Reuters)

The 2018 World Cup in Russia has caused many logistical problems for fans, given the size of the country.

Overnight trains and expensive internal flights are the most popular methods, it seems, while some particularly long trips by road have also been undertaken. There were the two England fans who cycled to Volgograd for the victory over Tunisia too.

READ MORE: Coutinho stunner not enough as Brazil controversially draw with Switzerland

AS IT UNFOLDED: Brazil v Switzerland

READ MORE: Xherdan Shaqiri defends Switzerland equaliser

But what about travelling to Russia by tractor? That is what three friends from Switzerland have done, arriving in time for their crucial Group E clash with Serbia tomorrow.

Tractor musuem owner Beat Studer and his two friends Werner Zimmermann and Josef Wyer left Switzerland 12 days ago, and have travelled more than 2000km in their 1964 vintage vehicle, raising more than £15,000 for Swiss children charities in the process.

“Stupid ideas come only when you are a little bit drunken,” Studer told Reuters, shortly after arriving in Kaliningrad.

READ MORE: Serbia squeeze past Costa Rica to open with victory

READ MORE: No World Cup pressure for Serbia, insists Matic

READ MORE: World Cup 2018 – The team by team guide

“We saw many different landscapes, different kind of people. Nobody booed us because we were travelling with the tractor. This was so nice.”

And despite the age of the tractor and the distance travelled, there were no issues on the trip either.

“With the tractor we have no problems,” Wyer explained – he drove the support van while the other two took turns at the wheel of the tractor for six hours each day.

World Cup Group E (PA)
World Cup Group E (PA)

“I had the problem with the two drivers because every night when they finished driving I would tell them they are like the two on the Muppet show because always they are like children.

“Normally a man one time in his life can do something like this so we had really, really good time together.”