A former Islander and diehard England fan will be writing a blog when he jets off to the FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

Jimmy Moore is buying an open ticket to Rio de Janeiro for the tournament in June in the hope his team can go all the way.

His dedication has seen him travel over land and sea to almost every European Championship since 1962 as well as two previous world cups in Spain in 1982 and England in 1966, although he could not get tickets to see Geoff Hurst’s famous hat-trick in the final.

He said: “It’s exciting on the day when you go to the games either home or away. I’ve never had any troubles in all my years.

“I’m really looking forward to it. I think we can possibly get into the semi-finals. I would like to think then it’s just one game away, that’s how I see it.

“You have got to believe. You wouldn’t go all that way if you didn’t believe your side could do it.”

The 67-year-old retired landlord of The Crown pub in Estuary Road, Sheerness, moved to Spain, just outside of Malaga, 14 years ago but he still regularly flies back to watch his team, Arsenal.

He used to live in Estuary Road, Sheerness, and managed The Crown pub’s football team for a spell.

Mr Moore has booked tickets to watch England play in warm-up games against Honduras and Ecuador in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in June before he follows the team to Brazil.

He managed to get tickets for the opening two games of the tournament but said it has been virtually impossible to get any for the later stages so he hopes to buy them while he is out there.

He said: “It’s getting very corporate now. It used to be easy to get tickets but now it’s just so hard.”

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