Supporters’ and consumers’ groups file lawsuit against ‘excessive’ World Cup ticket prices

LAUSANNE – The Football Supporters Europe (FSE) group filed a lawsuit on March 24 with the European Commission against football’s world governing body FIFA over “excessive ticket prices” for the 2026 World Cup Finals.

The FSE and the Euroconsumers group said tickets for the June 11-July 19 tournament in the US, Canada and Mexico were overpriced and complained that FIFA has a monopoly over the sales.

“Euroconsumers and Football Supporters Europe 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 said in a statement.

“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.”

FSE said prices for the final were way above those for the 2022 title decider in Qatar.

“The cheapest openly available final tickets now start at US$4,185 (S$5,400) – more than seven times the cost of the cheapest 2022 World Cup final ticket,” the group added.

By contrast, it noted that the lowest-priced Euro 2024 final tickets were €95 (S$140).

“FIFA’s own bid documents projected an average ticket price of US$1,408 but that number has been left far behind,” FSE said.

According to FIFA, almost seven million tickets have been made available.

Each person can buy a maximum of four tickets per match and a total of 40 for the whole competition.

There will be a total of 104 matches played at this expanded World Cup, the first ever to feature 48 teams, and ticket prices have soared for the most in-demand games.

FSE said the North American bid had initially promised tickets would be available from as little as US$21, but instead the cheapest tickets to go on sale have been priced at US$60 – for example for the Group J match between Austria and Jordan at the Levi’s Stadium in California.

Most tickets cost at least US$200 for matches involving leading nations.

Some tickets on offer for the final on FIFA’s official resale site are being listed at astronomical prices.

One category 3 seat for the game at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey was being advertised for an eye-watering US$143,750, over 41 times its original face value of US$3,450.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino insists ticket prices are simply a consequence of the huge demand.

“In the US in particular there is this thing called dynamic pricing, meaning the prices will go up or down, depending on the match in question,” he has said.

FSE said the problem with dynamic pricing was that there was no limit to how high the prices can go.

“FIFA used ‘variable pricing’, or dynamic pricing, with no cap and no transparency on how prices are set,” it said in the statement.

“Some tickets rose 25 per cent between sales phases. Fans had no clear way of knowing the final price before joining the queue.”

Having faced sustained criticism over prices, FIFA announced a cheaper category of tickets, but those seats available for US$60 were reserved for fans of qualified teams and would make up just 10 per cent of each national federation’s allotment.

“FIFA repeatedly advertised US$60 group-stage tickets,” FSE said. “In practice, they were so scarce that the entire category 3 inventory was practically sold out before general public sales opened.”

FIFA is keeping aside an unspecified number of tickets which it will make available from April until the end of the tournament “on a first-come, first-served basis”.

Then there are the resale platforms, including FIFA’s own official site. But this controversial fan-to-fan market allows resellers to determine prices themselves, hence the huge price advertised for a final ticket.

The resale market is unregulated in the US and Canada. In Mexico, reselling a ticket above face value is prohibited, but only when it is purchased in the country using the local Mexican currency. AFP