Football Dec 17, 2025

World Cup 2026 tickets: FIFA urged to halt ticket sales over ‘betrayal’ of fans pricing plan

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By Admin
Sports Journalist
World Cup 2026 tickets: FIFA urged to halt ticket sales over ‘betrayal’ of fans pricing plan

FIFA has been urged to halt World Cup ticket sales after it emerged countries’ most loyal fans face paying “extortionate” prices for tickets, with the cheapest for the final coming in at over £3,000.

Prices for England's fixtures at the tournament in the USA, Canada and Mexico were revealed on Thursday, with the cheapest ticket for the final - should the Three Lions reach that stage - costing between $4,185 (£3,120) and $8,680 (£6,471) for members of the England Supporters' Travel Club.

The Scottish FA confirmed its participant member association (PMA) allocation pricing, with the cheapest tickets for the opening match against Haiti in Boston costing $180 (£134) up to $500 (£373).

Meanwhile, cheapest tickets for Scotland's second game against Morocco, also in Boston, start at $220 (£164), while the final group game against Brazil in Miami will cost a minimum $265 (£198).

Football Supporters Europe (FSE) described FIFA's approach as a "monumental betrayal" of fans.

It said based on the information it had available so far, fans faced paying just over £6,000 to attend all of their team's matches from the first game to the final via the PMA allocation - five times more than they would have paid to do so at the last finals in Qatar.

"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," a statement said.

"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."

PMA allocations will equate to eight per hundred of a stadium's capacity for each match.

FSE pointed out 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".

England fans' group Free Lions posted on X to say it backed FSE's statement, adding that these were "shocking prices, above and beyond the already high costs we suspected".

"This can't be allowed to happen. Match-goers across the world deserve protection from these rip-off prices," the group's statement added.

Following FSE's statement, the Scottish Football Supporters Association said "we believe that it is time for the National Football Associations around the globe to hold FIFA to account for the excessive ticket prices, the poor level of ticket allocations of available tickets to fans of qualifying countries and the unacceptable 'dynamic pricing model'."

A random selection draw for World Cup tickets was opened by tournament organisers FIFA at 4pm UK time on Thursday.

All fans - not just those able to purchase tickets through the PMA allocation - will be able to go online between now and January 13 and try to order as many tickets as they would like - also at fixed prices.

Those fans will discover after the closure of the sale window how many - if any - tickets they have successfully obtained, with their credit cards then being charged accordingly.

Tickets sold in earlier windows have been subject to dynamic pricing - meaning they will rise or fall depending on demand.

Following England from the first match of Euro 2024 to the final with tickets in the 'fan 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).

Group A: Mexico, South Korea, South Africa, Republic of Ireland/Denmark/North Macedonia/Czech Republic

Group B: Canada, Switzerland, Qatar, Wales/Northern Ireland/Italy/Bosnia-Herzegovina

Group C: Brazil, Morocco, Scotland, Haiti

Group D: USA, Australia, Paraguay, Turkey/Romania/Slovakia/Kosovo

Group E: Germany, Ecuador, Ivory Coast, Curacao

Group F: Netherlands, Japan, Tunisia, Poland/Ukraine/Sweden/Albania

Group G: Belgium, Iran, Egypt, New Zealand

Group H: Spain, Uruguay, Saudi Arabia, Cape Verde

Group I: France, Senegal, Norway, Iraq or Bolivia/Suriname

Group J: Argentina, Austria, Algeria, Jordan

Group K: Portugal, Colombia, Uzbekistan, DR Congo or Jamaica/New Caledonia

Group L: England, Croatia, Panama, Ghana

Group stage: June 11-27

Round of 32: June 28 to July 3

Round of 16: July 4-7

Quarter-finals: July 9-11

Semi-finals: July 14-15

Third-place play-off ('Bronze final'): July 18

Final: July 19

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