Accusations of monopoly abuse and excessively high ticket prices at the upcoming World Cup. The European consumer organization Euroconsumers and the European fan organization Football Supporters Europe have filed a complaint against FIFA with the European Commission.
FIFA is in trouble again because of the horrendous prices for World Cup tickets and is even coming under legal pressure two and a half months before the start of the finals. The European fan organization Football Supporters Europe (FSE) filed a complaint against the world governing body with the European Commission on Tuesday. It denounces “excessive ticket prices” and “non-transparent and unfair purchasing conditions and processes”.
“FIFA holds a monopoly on ticket sales for the 2026 World Cup and has used this power to impose conditions on fans that would never be acceptable in a competitive market,” said the FSE, explaining its decision. Together with the FSE, the consumer organization Euroconsumers has formally lodged a complaint with the Commission.
Criticism of “dynamic pricing”
FSE and Euroconsumers are demanding that the European Commission instructs FIFA to abandon its “dynamic pricing”, to ‘freeze’ prices for the next sales phase in April at the level announced in December and to publish “at least 48 hours in advance” the number of remaining tickets in each category.
“The cheapest, openly available, final tickets currently start at 4185 dollars – more than seven times the price of the cheapest ticket for the 2022 World Cup final,” complained FSE and Euroconsumers: “FIFA’s own bid documents had forecast an average ticket price of 1408 dollars, but this figure has long since been far exceeded.” For comparison: the cheapest tickets for the 2024 European Championship final in Germany cost 100 dollars.
“Every game sold out” – but tickets are being held back
According to FIFA, a total of almost seven million tickets were offered for the 104 World Cup matches in the USA, Mexico and Canada. FIFA President Gianni Infantino recently stated that a total of 508 million requests for tickets had been received and that “every” match was “sold out”. On the other hand, the world governing body is holding back an unspecified number of tickets to be sold from April onwards.
On FIFA’s official resale site, some tickets for the final are being offered at astronomical prices. A category three seat for the match at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey has been advertised for a staggering 143,750 dollars – more than 41 times the original price of 3450 dollars. Both buyers and sellers will have to pay a 15 percent fee to the world governing body.
No trace of 21-dollar cards
The FSE denounced the fact that World Cup tickets had originally been promised at a price of 21 dollars. However, the cheapest tickets sold to date had actually cost 60 dollars.
The European Commissioner for Sport, Glenn Micallef, criticized FIFA at the previous UEFA Congress in February: “Football must never, ever put commercial and political considerations above the fans’ experience, the well-being of the athletes and the long-term development of the game.”
