World Cup 2026 tickets: FIFA urged to halt ticket sales over ‘betrayal’ of fans pricing plan
World Cup ticket prices unveiled as the cheapest final ticket comes in at over £3,000; Football Supporters Europe (FSE) described FIFA's approach as a "monumental betrayal" of fans; FSE says fans face paying just over £6,000 to attend every match from the first game to the final
Thursday 11 December 2025 19:06, UK
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.
Football Supporters Europe (FSE) described FIFA's approach as a "monumental betrayal" of fans.
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It said based on the information it so far had available, fans faced paying just over £6,000 to attend all of their team's matches from the first game to the final via the participant member association (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.
The Scottish Football Association confirmed its PMA allocation pricing, with the cheapest tickets for the match against Haiti in Boston costing $180 (£134) up to $500 (£372).
The cheapest tickets for the second game against Morocco, also in Boston, start at 220 US dollars (£164) while the final group game against Brazil in Miami will cost a minimum 265 US dollars (£198).
The same price was listed for the final tickets as had been published by the Croatian FA earlier.
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).
World Cup draw in full
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
World Cup key dates
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
