Fifa starts ticket climbdown after uproar over ‘betrayal’

Fifa has started a climbdown on the scandal of 2026 World Cup ticket prices, as 10 per cent of all allocations for qualified nations will now involve tickets fixed at just $60 (£44.70) for every game.

- MIGUEL DELANEY CHIEF FOOTBALL WRITER

The announcement was nevertheless made without any consultation with fan groups, who didn't know it was coming and feel the numbers are still divisively low.

England, for example, have 610 supporters with “top caps” - the fans who have hit a certain number of appearances to warrant priority treatment - but such a number is unlikely to be fully covered by the “newly introduced Supporter Entry Tier” at any individual match. It could mean one fan pays $480 if England go all the way to the final, and another - with identical caps - pays around $7,000.

What's more, over 98 per cent of tickets for the tournament remain unchanged.

Football Supporters Europe say: “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. 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 prices, while the vast majority would still have to pay extortionate prices, way higher than at any tournament before.”