Fifa has been accused of a “monumental betrayal” by fan representatives after it emerged that the cheapest tickets for next summer’s World Cup final will cost more than £3,000.
Football Supporters Europe (FSE), which represents fans across the continent, described the prices as “extortionate” and called for an immediate halt to ticket sales after a day when England fans discovered that tickets to follow their team through the tournament could end up costing more than £6,000.
Clarity came from the Croatian football federation publishing prices in its participant member association (PMA) allocation, which is designed to be made available to fans who attend the most matches and means that tickets are sold at fixed prices rather than distributed via the controversial dynamic pricing system. The Croatian federation listed the cheapest tickets for the final at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on 19 July at $4,185 (£3,120).
The prices drew a furious reaction from FSE, which said the minimum the most dedicated fans can expect to pay to watch their team from the first match to the final would be $6,900 (£5,137.74) – five times more than it would have cost do so when the World Cup was held in Qatar in 2022. That figure could more than double once costs such as flights and accommodation are factored into attending a tournament held in Canada, Mexico and the US.
FSE said: “Football Supporters Europe is astonished by the extortionate ticket prices imposed by Fifa on the most dedicated supporters for next year’s Fifa World Cup. This is a monumental betrayal of the tradition of the World Cup, ignoring the contribution of supporters to the spectacle it is.
“We call on Fifa to immediately halt PMA ticket sales, engage in a consultation with all impacted parties, and review ticket prices and category distribution until a solution that respects the tradition, universality, and cultural significance of the World Cup is found.”
Members of England Supporters Travel Club (ESTC) were also astonished to hear of the prices from the Football Association on Thursday. The cheapest ticket for England’s opening match against Croatia in Dallas will cost $265 (£195) and are priced at a minimum of $220 (£165) when Thomas Tuchel’s side face Ghana in Boston and Panama in New Jersey in their other games in Group L.
ESTC members discovered that a semi-final ticket would set them back a minimum of £687, up from £508 to attend the quarter-finals, and £220 and £175, respectively, to go to the last-16 and last-32 ties. Those prices will force loyal fans to decide whether it is worth attending the tournament.
By comparison, following England from the first match of Euro 2024 to the final with tickets in the “fans first” category would have cost €375 (£328) according to information published by Uefa in the autumn of 2023. Even tickets in the next category up would have cost a total of €860 (£753). Fans also discovered earlier this week that tourists to the US face having to reveal their social media activity from the last five years, under new plans from President Donald Trump’s administration.
FSE’s outrage was shared by the England supporters group Free Lions, which said on X: “This can’t be allowed to happen. Match-goers across the world deserve protection from these rip-off prices.”
Thursday featured the opening of a random lottery for tickets opened by Fifa for the first time since the draw for the tournament was held last week. All fans, not just those able to purchase tickets through the PMA allocation, will be able to go online between now and 13 January and try to order as many tickets as they would like at fixed prices. Tickets sold in earlier windows have been subject to dynamic pricing, meaning they will rise or fall depending on demand.
PMA allocations will equate to 8% of a stadium’s capacity for each match. FSE said that rather than adopting a standard price across all group matches, pricing appeared to have been calculated “dependent on vague criteria such as the perceived attractiveness of the fixture”.
Fifa has been approached for comment.
