Individuals stroll previous a countdown clock for the Fifa World Cup 2026 on a avenue, in Guadalajara, Mexico, February 25, 2026. — Reuters
The Soccer Supporters Europe (FSE) group filed a lawsuit on Tuesday with the European Fee focusing on soccer’s world governing physique Fifa over “excessive ticket prices” for this yr’s World Cup finals.
The FSE and the Euroconsumers organisation mentioned the tickets for the June 11-July 19 match within the US, Canada and Mexico had been overpriced and complained that Fifa has a monopoly over the gross sales.
“Euroconsumers and Football Supporters Europe (FSE) have filed a formal complaint with the European Commission against Fifa, alleging that the football body has abused its monopoly position to impose excessive ticket prices and opaque and unfair purchasing conditions and processes on European fans ahead of the 2026 World Cup,” the FSE mentioned in a press release.
“Fifa holds a monopoly over ticket sales for the 2026 World Cup and has used that power to impose conditions on fans that would never be acceptable in a competitive market,” the group added.
The FSE mentioned the costs for the ultimate had been approach above these for the 2022 ultimate in Qatar.
“The cheapest openly available final tickets now start at $4,185 — more than seven times the cost of the cheapest 2022 World Cup final ticket,” they mentioned.
Against this, it mentioned the most affordable Euro 2024 ultimate tickets had been 95 euros ($100).
A European Fee spokesperson informed AFP they might be “examining” the grievance however Fifa mentioned that they had but to obtain it.
The Fifa spokesperson informed AFP: “Fifa is focused on ensuring fair access to our game for existing and prospective fans.”
Based on Fifa, virtually seven million tickets have been made accessible.
Every particular person can purchase a most of 4 tickets per match and a complete of 40 for the entire competitors.
There might be a complete of 104 matches performed at this expanded World Cup, the primary ever to function 48 groups, and ticket costs have soared for probably the most in-demand video games.
FSE mentioned the North American bid crew had initially promised tickets could be accessible from as little as $21, however as an alternative the most affordable tickets to go on sale have been for $60, for instance for the Group J opener between Austria and Jordan on the Levi’s Stadium in California.
Most tickets value a minimum of $200 for matches involving main nations.
‘Dynamic pricing’
Fifa president Gianni Infantino insists ticket costs are merely a consequence of the large demand.
“In the US in particular there is this thing called dynamic pricing, meaning the prices will go up or down”, relying on the match in query, Infantino has mentioned.
FSE mentioned the issue with ‘dynamic pricing’ was there was no restrict to how excessive the costs can go.
“Fifa used ‘variable pricing’, or dynamic pricing, with no cap and no transparency on how prices are set,” it mentioned within the assertion.
“Some tickets rose 25% between sales phases. Fans had no clear way of knowing the final price before joining the queue.”
Having confronted sustained criticism over costs, Fifa introduced a less expensive class of tickets priced at $60, however they had been reserved for followers of certified groups and would make up simply 10% of every nationwide federation’s allotment.
“Fifa repeatedly advertised $60 group-stage tickets,” FSE mentioned.
“In practice they were so scarce that the entire Category 4 inventory was practically sold out before general public sales opened.”
Fifa is retaining apart an unspecified variety of tickets which it’s going to make accessible from April till the tip of the match “on a first come, first served basis”.
Then there are the resale platforms, together with Fifa’s personal official web site. However this controversial fan-to-fan market permits resellers to find out costs themselves, therefore the large worth marketed for a ultimate ticket.
The resale market is unregulated in the US and Canada. In Mexico, reselling a ticket above face worth is prohibited, however solely when the ticket is bought in Mexico utilizing the native foreign money.
