‘Monumental betrayal’ – cheapest World Cup final ticket to cost £3,119

Supporters hoping to attend next year’s World Cup final face paying vast prices, with tickets in the ‘supporter value tier’ starting at £3,119 ($4,185).

Fans’ group Football Supporters Europe has said it is “astonished” by Fifa’s “extortionate” pricing strategy.

The high prices for group games and the final have been leaking out on Thursday as Fifa informs national associations of their allocations.

It means the price of the cheapest ticket for Fifa’s showpiece event has increased almost sevenfold compared with the 2022 World Cup. The lowest-priced tickets on open sale in Qatar were £450.

BBC Sport understands tickets for the ‘supporters standard tier’ are £4,162 ($5,560), compared with £747 in 2022.

‘Supporters premium tier’ is £6,615 ($8,860), with the same band £1,197 at the Lusail Stadium three years ago.

FSE has demanded that ticket sales should be halted immediately, adding that tickets not being available in the cheapest category is “a monumental betrayal of the tradition of the World Cup, ignoring the contribution of supporters to the spectacle it is”.

The third ticket ballot begins on Thursday afternoon. On Monday, members of national supporters’ clubs will get the chance to enter a random draw for individual games, or to follow their team through to the final.

There are about 4,000 tickets for each game available through the official supporters’ groups. All other tickets are allocated through the random ballot process, other than those held back by Fifa for corporate partners.

Capacities at the venues range from 94,000 at the Dallas Stadium, where England play Croatia, to 45,000 at the Toronto Stadium.

In a departure from recent tournaments, group stage games are being priced based on their attractiveness, rather than at a flat rate.

In Qatar, group stage fixtures had set prices of £68.50, £164.50 and £219.

Yet for England’s match against Croatia on 17 June, tickets cost £198, £373 or £523.

England v Ghana is £164, £320 and £447, with England v Panama £164, £346 and £462.

England fan Luke Buxton told BBC Radio 5 Live: “It is absolutely outrageous. It’s a big betrayal to the most dedicated fans of every nation that’s following their side at the World Cup next summer.

“We were planning on going to the group stages initially, then coming home, then flying out for the knockouts. Ideally the round of 16 but it may be too expensive. So the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final.

“However, with these ticket prices coming today, I am not sure I am going to make the knockout stages at all now.”

Scotland’s first two group games are cheaper than England’s. Against Haiti the prices will be £134, £298 or £372, with Morocco set as £163, £320 and £447. The final group game is priced the same as England v Croatia.

Scotland fan John Wallan told BBC Radio 5 Live: “I am going, that is definite. But I have two children as well. They are 19 and 12, so everything has been ramped up.

“I think for a family it will be £15,000-£20,000. I would love to take the kids because it may not happen for another 30 years. We’ve not booked anything yet. We are still deciding if it is one, three or four of us that go.”

Quarter-finals are priced at £507, £757 and £1,073, with the semi-finals £686, £1,819 and £2,363.

There are no category four tickets available to fans, though this was also the case in 2022 when they were reserved exclusively for residents of Qatar.

FSE has called on Fifa to stop the ticket sale process, believing it needs to rethink the pricing policy.

It said Fifa should “immediately halt PMA [Participating Member Association allocation] 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”.

It continued: “In the price tables gradually and confidentially released by Fifa, tickets allocated to National Associations, which typically distribute them via official supporters’ groups or loyalty programmes to their most devoted fans, are reaching astronomical levels.

“National team supporters are expected to pay this full amount in early 2026 to have the opportunity to follow their team up to the final.

“Adding insult to injury, the lowest price category will not be available to the most dedicated supporters through their National Associations, as Fifa chose to reserve the scarce number of category four tickets to the general sales, subject to dynamic ticket pricing.

“For the first time in World Cup history, no consistent price will be offered across all group stage games. Instead, Fifa is introducing a variable pricing policy dependent on vague criteria such as the perceived attractiveness of the fixture. Fans of different national teams will therefore have to pay different prices for the same category at the same stage of the tournament, without any transparency on the pricing structure enforced by Fifa.

“The bid document released in 2018 promised tickets priced as low as $21. Where are these tickets now? The full way to the final, according to the same bid book, was supposed to cost $2,242 in the cheapest category. This promise is long gone.”

All tickets issued to football associations will be behind one of the goals primarily in the lower bowl, with the most expensive closest to the pitch, the second category in the middle, and the cheapest behind this.

But the cost of attending every game in the United States, Mexico and Canada has been laid bare.

For the entire tournament through to the final, it will cost about £5,225 to go to all eight matches, up to £8,580 in the mid-price range, or £12,357 for the top tier.

In 2022, it would have cost £1,466, £2,645 or £3,914, though that was for seven games rather than eight.

It is not yet clear if fans who are successful in their application for ‘follow your team’ tickets will have the whole amount taken off their credit cards in January.

If their team is knocked out, a refund for the unattended matches is issued to the card.

There will not be any dynamic pricing in this sale, but prices are likely to be considerably higher if fans try to buy off Fifa’s resale site following this phase.