The cheapest ticket for any England or Scotland fan if their side reaches the final will be a staggering £3,120, with fans blasting FIFA’s pricing as ‘the ‘mother of all rip-offs’
Football supporters across the world are raging following the announcement of official ticket prices for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The staggering ticket prices come after the news that fans could be barred from travelling to the World Cup if Donald Trump doesn’t like their tweets.
Fans are furious after it emerged the most affordable ticket for next year’s final will be an eye-watering £3,120. The cheapest ticket available to England supporters for a group stage match is £168 – triple the cost of Qatar 2022. For England’s opener against Croatia, for example, many tickets will be priced at either £373 or £523.
FIFA has been accused of orchestrating the “mother of all rip-offs” and ultimately removing “football from the working class man and woman” – with even fans of smaller nations such as Curacao, Cape Verde and Jordan, who making their World Cup debuts, joining the chorus of outrage.
The influential supporters’ organisation Football Supporters Europe (FSE) said it was “astonished” by FIFA’s “extortionate” pricing strategy for the tournament, taking place in the USA, Canada and Mexico. The group has called for ticket sales to cease immediately until a more reasonable pricing structure is established, reports the Mirror.
The shocking prices began emerging on Thursday night as FIFA began informing national associations of their ticket allocations. Devoted England fans Neal Weekes and Fil Sollof were furious.
Weekes, 60, an auctioneer from south East London, raged: “We are used to being ripped-off but this is ridiculous. This is the mother of all rip-offs.”
Sollof, also 60 and a property services business owner from Essex, blasted: “FIFA has finally taken football from the working class man and woman. It’s disgusting. This has got to stop. Gianni Infantino is driving this. To him it’s all about the money – to us fans it’s about the glory of the game.
“We understand ticket prices are not going to be cheap anymore, but Infantino has got to remember what the average fan earns.”
Ronan Evain, Director of FSE, told the Mirror: “This is such a shock. We are all stunned by this. A lot of fans won’t be able to afford it. For European fans, this is several months’ of salary – let alone the rest of the world.
“FIFA doesn’t need the money. They have enormous reserves. This is such a monumental diversion from the history of football. FIFA has the power to stop and reconsider. We have the feeling that this is a completely rushed decision. It’s going to have a very negative impact on the tournament.”
The Football Association is poised to inform the England Supporters Travel Club over the weekend that qualifying members – those who have accumulated sufficient loyalty points – can expect to shell out £198 for a “value tier” seat at their opening match against Croatia in Dallas, Texas.
The fresh pricing structure means the most affordable ticket for the final has risen nearly sevenfold compared with the 2022 World Cup. The cheapest tickets available for public purchase in Qatar were £450.
Tickets for the ‘supporters standard tier’ cost £4,162 – a stark contrast to the £747 price tag in 2022. The ‘supporters premium tier’ comes in at £6,615, whilst the equivalent category was just £1,197 at the Lusail Stadium three years prior.
On Monday, members of national supporters’ clubs will have the opportunity to enter a lottery for individual matches, or to follow their team all the way to the final. Breaking from previous tournaments, group stage matches are now priced according to team quality, rather than using a uniform rate.
In Qatar, group stage fixtures had fixed prices of £68.50, £164.50 and £219.
However, for England’s opening clash against Croatia on June 17, tickets are priced at £198, £373 or £523. Category four tickets remain unavailable to supporters, though this mirrored the situation in 2022 when they were exclusively reserved for Qatar residents.
Mr Evain yesterday urged FIFA to suspend the ticket sales process, arguing that the pricing strategy requires reconsideration. FSE declared that the absence of tickets in the most affordable category represents “a monumental betrayal of the tradition of the World Cup, ignoring the contribution of supporters to the spectacle it is”.
A spokesperson for the organisation said: “The bid document released in 2018 promised tickets priced as low as $21. Where are these tickets now? The full way to the final, according to the same bid book, was supposed to cost $2,242 in the cheapest category. This promise is long gone.”
A previous FIFA statement on ticket prices stated: “The pricing model adopted for FIFA World Cup 26 reflects the existing market practice for major entertainment and sporting events within our hosts on a daily basis, soccer included.”
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