December 17 – Following a global outcry, FIFA has slashed a limited number of World Cup tickets for qualified team’s most loyal fans to $60. Football Supporters Europe (FSE) called it an “appeasement tactic”.
The $60 World Cup tickets will also apply to the World Cup final, the showpiece match at the MetLife Stadium that will conclude next summer’s supersized 48-team World Cup in North America. Previously, FIFA had set the price at $4,185.
However, the new $60 category, labelled the ‘Supporter Entry Tier’, for national team fans is limited and FIFA has left it to national FAs to decide on distribution to their most loyal fans. The number of $60 tickets for each game is mostly in the hundreds, rather than thousands.
In a statement, the world governing body offered a convoluted explanation on how many tickets would fall within the ‘Supporter Entry Tier’: “In total, 50% of each PMA allocation will fall within the most affordable range, namely Supporter Value Tier (40%) and the Supporter Entry Tier (10%). The remaining allocation is split evenly between the Supporter Standard Tier and the Supporter Premier Tier.”
It comes down to 10% of the ticket allocation a qualified team gets per match. In reality, very few tickets in ‘Supporter Entry Tier’.
In Houston, German fans will have fewer than 500 tickets – or less than one per cent – available at $60 for their opening match against Curacao in Group F. The venue in the Texan city has a capacity of 72,000.
In a statement, FSE said: “For the moment we are looking at the FIFA announcement as nothing more than an appeasement tactic due to the global negative backlash.”
The supporters group maintained that the vast majority of tickets would still be sold at extortionate prices: “Based on the allocations publicly available, this would mean that at best a few hundred fans per match and team would be lucky enough to take advantage of the 60 USD prices, while the vast majority would still have to pay extortionate prices, way higher than at any tournament before.
“Following significant pressure from supporters, FIFA has partially relented on its ticket price structuring. This shows that FIFA’s ticketing policy is not set in stone, was decided in a rush, and without proper consultation – including with FIFA’s own member associations. While we welcome FIFA’s seeming recognition of the damage its original plans were to cause, the revisions do not go far enough to reconcile.”
FIFA’s ticket pricing strategy sparked global backlash, as fans are getting priced out. The governing body received staunch criticism as well for applying dynamic pricing, a system that adjusts ticket prices according to demand.
On Tuesday, British PM Keir Starmer also weighed in and encouraged FIFA to make tickets more affordable. “I welcome FIFA’s announcement of some lower-priced supporters’ tickets,” wrote Starmer in a statement. “But as someone who used to save up for England tickets, I encourage FIFA to do more to make tickets more affordable so that the World Cup doesn’t lose touch with the genuine supporters who make the game so special.”
FIFA said there had been an “extraordinary global demand for tickets”, with 20 million requests already submitted for the random selection draw sales phase that opened last Thursday.
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