FIFA on Wednesday announced marginal relief for supporters looking to attend next year’s World Cup, with a small amount of cut-price tickets to be assigned to 10% of each competing association’s match allocation, for all matches.
Priced at $60 USD, the ‘supporter entry tier’ option falls more closely in line with prices charged at previous World Cups, but will be genuinely golden tickets amid FIFA’s ocean of excess. The bulk of Australians hoping to see the Socceroos play the USA will pay a minimum $400, while some Group Stage matches are edging towards minimum $700.
Football Supporters Association (UK) chair Tom Greatex labelled the ‘climbdown a cynical attempt to deflect attention while continuing to rip fans off’, while the vocal Football Supporters Europe stated ‘the revisions do not go far enough to reconcile.’
It’s just the latest comically shameless act by FIFA; within the past fortnight we’ve seen Donald Trump awarded a newly-confected peace prize (notionally on behalf of all football fans), while three-minute ad breaks have been crowbarred into each half of all World Cup matches, thinly veiled as drinks breaks in the interests of player safety. Even for an organisation that’s always acted as a law unto itself, it feels they’ve recently kicked it up multiple levels.
‘You can say ‘that’s just FIFA’, but I think that’s letting them off the hook far too easily. Even if there’s no hope of making FIFA in their ‘infinite wisdom’ reversing it, it’s still important to speak out’, Joey Lynch (ESPN, The Guardian) told Box2Box.
‘It’s important to let FIFA know, and perhaps more importantly other organisers watching on and maybe getting similar ideas that this shouldn’t be acceptable. When you look at the mammoth increase in ticket prices simply between the Qatar World Cup and this World Cup in North America, the massive jump in ticket prices from that one shouldn’t be acceptable.
‘FIFA will make billions of dollars from this tournament, whatever the ticket prices are. They simply do not need to rort fans to this extent… and for an organisation that touts itself as being custodians of joy, bringing football to the world and all of this other PR speak that Gianni Infantino loves to say whenever you stick a camera in his face, the fact they are going out now and making this World Cup less accessible, shouldn’t be acceptable to football fans.’
For all that was asked of those fans to accept and enjoy a World Cup in Qatar, with plenty asked to dig deep morally, they were not asked to dig this deep financially. Top-end tickets & packages will always be there for those who can afford them, but lower category tickets were available to Group Stage games from $100.
FIFA here has implemented dynamic pricing, common in the USA, pointing to ‘soaring global demand’ – and can financially justify it by the 5million ticket requests it received within 24 hours. Cynically, they’re even running their own resale platform, and pocketing a tidy 30% commission.
‘I don’t care if American fans are used to paying massive amounts of money to attend sporting events. The point to take from that is American sporting fans shouldn’t be paying that much, either. They shouldn’t be allowing themselves to be rorted by billionaire franchise owners in the MLB, NHL, NFL, MLS. They should be demanding better ticket prices like the rest of the world is now doing with FIFA, even though there is probably not much hope of [further] overturn.’
Australia was among the top ten nations to submit initial ticket requests. Former winners England, France, Germany & Argentina also featured, along with the trio of host nations.
‘It’s very important that, as we discuss this, as members of a relatively well-off Western nation, acknowledge the challenges [of others]. Imagine someone from Haiti who’s just seen their nation qualify. Not only will they have to navigate incredibly onerous and prejudiced border protocols just to get into the country, but now have to worry about ticket prices, which are going to be absolutely insane.
‘It’s not just Australian fans getting taken for a ride, or English, French and German fans. While we might be the most vocal about it, complaining in English on easily consumed social media channels, there are 48 nations affected by this, coming from vastly different backgrounds. It’s important to use our voices as a collective on this.’