FIFA creates $60 World Cup ticket category for small group of supporters after facing uproar over pricing
Five days after popular European soccer fans' group, Football Supporters Europe, accused FIFA of "extortionate" 2026 World Cup ticket prices in a passionate statement that raised serious concerns about the introduction of variable pricing, FIFA announced a "supporter entry tier" on Tuesday.
This new category, according to The Athletic, will offer around 1,000 tickets per game for $60 to supporters of the two participating teams.
While FSE welcomes the tweak, the organization noted in a statement Tuesday that "the revisions do not go far enough."
Ticket prices for the 2026 World Cup, which will be hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, are the highest in the event's history. They're also significantly steeper than what North American soccer officials proposed while successfully bidding for the tournament in 2018, when they, according to The Athletic, estimated group-stage tickets could go from anywhere between $21-$323 and that World Cup final tickets could range from $128-$1,550.
The cheapest ticket to the final is now $4,185, per The Athletic, which also reported last Thursday that the winner-take-all match is already multiple times more expensive than the 2022 World Cup final and any 2024 Paris Olympics final for any sport.
In other words, the 2026 World Cup ticket pricing model is more similar to the NFL's than it is to that of any other international soccer tournament.
As for the new "supporter entry tier," those $60 tickets will reportedly account for only 1.6% of the total tickets available for each match. That's where The Athletic's 1,000 tickets per game estimate comes into play, given that most of the World Cup stadiums in the U.S., Canada and Mexico can fit more than 60,000 fans.
FSE pointed out in its Tuesday statement that this small change extends a more affordable option to the minority of supporters. The majority will still face exorbitant prices.
"There’s also still the question of supporters with disabilities, as no new pricing structure has been announced for them and complimentary companion tickets still seem to be absent," FSE wrote.
"For the moment we are looking at the FIFA announcement as nothing more than an appeasement tactic due to the global negative backlash."
That backlash came after FIFA's third sales phase, which will run through Jan. 13 and is the first since the World Cup draw, was opened to the public.
The Athletic's Henry Bushnell broke it down last Thursday:
[FIFA] hiked some Category 1 ticket prices from $410 or $445 last month to $700 for games such as England vs. Croatia and Scotland vs. Brazil. In total, the Category 1 price rose for 80 of the 104 matches — in some cases by 71% — while it fell for 11 matches, according to data tracked and compiled by The Athletic.
Category 1 tickets are closest to the action. Category 4 tickets are the farthest away, although those have been few and far between and aren't available to the general public in the current sales phase, per The Athletic. FIFA has reportedly tiered this World Cup's games in similar categories, with the most enticing group-stage matches yielding the highest ticket prices.
Essentially, the higher demand for a match, the higher the prices — and vice versa. That's left loads of fans upset, most notably those overseas who will also have to navigate travel prices.
The distribution of the $60 "supporter entry tier" tickets will be managed by the Participating Member Associations, according to FIFA.
"They are requested to ensure that these tickets are specifically allocated to loyal fans who are closely connected to their national teams," FIFA said in its Tuesday statement.
Those tickets are a step in the right direction, however, Category 1-3 tickets remain hundreds of dollars.