FIFA Announces Cut-Price Ticket Category After Public Outrage Over Steep Pricing At World Cup

Last Updated:December 17, 2025, 12:11 IST

FIFA announced in a statement that a limited number of Supporter Entry Tier tickets priced at $60 would be available for all 104 matches, including the final.

FIFA World Cup. (X)

Organisers of the FIFA World Cup revealed a new reduced-price ticket category on Tuesday following criticism from fans about pricing for the 2026 tournament in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

FIFA, football’s global governing body, announced in a statement that a limited number of “Supporter Entry Tier" tickets priced at $60 would be available for all 104 matches, including the final.

The plan is “designed to further support travelling fans following their national teams across the tournament," FIFA stated.

The $60 tickets will be reserved for fans of qualified teams and will constitute 10 percent of each national federation’s allotment.

Football Supporters Europe (FSE), a fan group that had criticised the ticket prices as “extortionate" and “astronomical" last week, said FIFA’s response was insufficient.

“While we welcome FIFA’s seeming recognition of the damage its original plans were to cause, the revisions do not go far enough," FSE said in a statement on Tuesday.

Last week, FSE noted that ticket prices were nearly five times higher than in 2022 in Qatar, calling FIFA’s pricing for 2026 a “monumental betrayal of the tradition of the World Cup."

“If a supporter were to follow their team from the first match to the final, it would cost them a minimum of $6,900," FSE said, adding that World Cup organisers had promised tickets priced from $21 in a 2018 bid document.

On Tuesday, FSE described FIFA’s partial ticketing reversal as exposing flaws in how prices for the next year’s tournament were set.

“For the moment, we see the FIFA announcement as nothing more than an appeasement tactic due to the global negative backlash," FSE said.

“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.

“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, higher than at any tournament before."

The organisation also criticised the lack of provisions for supporters with disabilities or their companions.

Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer echoed FSE’s concerns, stating that FIFA’s cheaper ticket category did not go far enough.

“I welcome FIFA’s announcement of some lower-priced supporters’ tickets," Starmer wrote on X.

“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."

Announcing the $60 tickets on Tuesday, FIFA requested national federations to ensure these tickets are specifically allocated to loyal fans closely connected to their national teams.

FIFA also stated that if fans purchased tickets for knockout round games only to see their team eliminated earlier, they “will have the administrative fee waived when refunds are processed."

It added that the announcement was made “amid extraordinary global demand for tickets," with 20 million requests already submitted.

The draw for tickets of all prices in the first round of sales will take place on Tuesday, January 13.

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