FA urged to press Fifa over World Cup ticket prices

The Football Association has been asked to lobby Fifa to lower the price of World Cup tickets by a leading supporters’ group.

The Football Supporters’ Association (FSA) says the pricing structure for next year’s tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico is “scandalous”.

It has joined Football Supporters Europe (FSE) in demanding that the sales process is stopped so fans’ groups can hold talks with world governing body Fifa over its pricing policy.

“We back Football Supporters Europe in calling for a halt in ticket sales and we are calling on the Football Association to work with fellow FAs to directly challenge these disgraceful prices,” the FSA said in a statement.

“We call on all national associations to stand up for your supporters, without whom there would be no professional game.”

BBC Sport has contacted Fifa, the FA and the Scottish FA, all of which are yet to comment.

The huge increase in the price of tickets was revealed on Thursday when Fifa released allocation details for the official supporters’ groups of each country.

At the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, group stage fixtures all had set prices of £68.50, £164.50 or £219.

But for England v Croatia and Scotland v Brazil next year, tickets cost around £198, £373 or £523.

The cost ramps up considerably in the latter stages.

Quarter-finals for all teams are £507, £757 and £1,073, with the semi-finals £686, £1,819 and £2,363.

The cheapest tickets for the final are £3,119, seven times more expensive than in Qatar.

There are no concessions across any of its tickets for children or other groups.

The cheapest tickets are in the ‘supporter value’ category, which the FSA called “a laughable insult to your average fan”.

The FSA added that supporters felt they had been “stabbed in the back” and that loyal fans will now likely be missing in the US, Mexico and Canada because the matches will be “unaffordable” to most.

“This is a tournament that is supposed to be celebrated by the world, where fans of all nations come together for the love of football,” the FSA said. “Fifa has decided to make it all about the money and the elite who can afford it.

“For Fifa, loyalty is not the hard-working fan travelling thousands of miles in support of their team at qualifiers around the continent. A game that should be for all is now only for those who can afford it.

“Who needs to follow England away for disappointment when Fifa can deliver that six months before a ball is kicked? The life has been sucked out of this tournament before it starts.”

It will cost about £5,225 for a supporter to follow their team through to the final if they were to attend all eight matches in the cheapest ticket category.

That rises to about £8,850 in the mid-price range, or £12,357 for the top tier.

In 2022, it would have cost £1,466, £2,645 or £3,914, though that was for seven games rather than eight.

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While it has not yet commented, the FA is aware that England fans are angry, and it will be relaying those concerns to Fifa. There is a Fifa Council meeting in Doha next week, and FA Chair Debbie Hewitt will be present. Last month she said that she was opposed to dynamic ticket pricing, and has vowed that it will not be used at Euro 2028, which the UK and Ireland is hosting.

Despite mounting pressure, Fifa has also not yet made any public comment on its ticket price policies.

That may change if a number of national football associations jointly raise concerns, but with the Home Nations FAs hoping to host the 2035 Women’s World Cup, they (and the UK government) may also be wary of upsetting Fifa.

BBC Sport has been told that Fifa is waiting to see how many people have entered the ballot, but that it is expecting strong demand.

Privately, Fifa insiders say that while tickets will seem expensive to many, the governing body has a duty to set prices with the US market in mind, grow the game around the world, and to use its revenues to develop men’s, women’s and youth football.

Fifa president Gianni Infantino has also promised to achieve record revenues, and the most lucrative sports event in history will do no harm to his re-election hopes in 2027.

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FSE has called on Fifa to stop the ticket sale process, believing it needs to rethink the pricing policy.

“In the price tables gradually and confidentially released by Fifa, tickets allocated to national associations… are reaching astronomical levels,” it said in a statement.

“Adding insult to injury, the lowest price category will not be available to the most dedicated supporters through their national associations [because] Fifa chose to reserve the scarce number of category four tickets to the general sales, subject to dynamic ticket pricing.

“For the first time in World Cup history, no consistent price will be offered across all group stage games. Instead, Fifa is introducing a variable pricing policy dependent on vague criteria such as the perceived attractiveness of the fixture.

“Fans of different national teams will therefore have to pay different prices for the same category at the same stage of the tournament, without any transparency on the pricing structure enforced by Fifa.”

The Football Supporters’ Association’s England Fans’ Embassy said: “These prices are a slap in the face to supporters who support their team outside of the flagship tournament that appears every four years.

“A game for supporters, loyalty has been thrown out of the window and supporters of the participating nations have been completely let down.”