FIFA has sharply cut the price of some World Cup tickets for teams’ most loyal supporters after a global backlash, allowing select fans to attend the final for $60 instead of paying as much as $4,185.
The move marks a rare retreat by world football’s governing body and its president, Gianni Infantino, who has faced sustained criticism over World Cup policies, from eye-watering ticket prices to closer political ties with U.S. President Donald Trump.
FIFA said Tuesday that $60 tickets will be available for every match at the expanded tournament in North America. The tickets will be allocated to the national federations of participating teams, which will decide how to distribute them to loyal supporters who regularly follow their teams at home and abroad.
Each team is expected to receive between 400 and 750 tickets per match under what FIFA is calling the "Supporter Entry Tier.” The World Cup will be staged across 16 host cities, including 11 NFL stadiums in the United States, along with venues in Canada and Mexico.
FIFA did not specify exactly why it changed strategy so dramatically but said the lower prices are "designed to further support traveling fans following their national teams across the tournament.”
However, the Football Supporters Europe group, which represents grassroots fan organizations, said the limited price cut was "an appeasement tactic due to the global negative backlash.”
"This shows that FIFA’s ticketing policy is not set in stone, was decided in a rush and without proper consultation,” the group said in a statement.
The World Cup in North America will be the first edition to feature 48 teams, up from 32, and is expected to earn FIFA at least $10 billion in revenue while being the most expensive ever for fans.
Despite the outcry over prices, FIFA says it has already received more than 20 million ticket requests in its latest sales phase.
The FSE group said that even with Tuesday’s announcement, "the vast majority would still have to pay extortionate prices, way higher than at any tournament before.”
Fans worldwide reacted with shock and anger last week after seeing FIFA’s ticketing plans, which gave participating teams no tickets in the lowest-priced category. Their standard allocation is 8% of stadium capacity per team.
The cheapest prices ranged from $140 to $265 for group-stage games that did not involve co-hosts the United States, Canada and Mexico. The $265 games involve Lionel Messi’s Argentina, Portugal with Cristiano Ronaldo, and well-supported teams such as Brazil and England.
FIFA set those prices despite the co-hosts pledging eight years ago, when bidding for the tournament, that hundreds of thousands of $21 tickets would be made available for games before the knockout rounds.
The hospitality program in modern NFL venues, now managed in-house instead of outsourced to an agency, is expected to earn FIFA billions of dollars rather than hundreds of millions.
Criticism from fans, especially in Europe, has been increasing for several months over plans for "dynamic pricing” and extra fees on a FIFA-run resale platform, both features common in the U.S. entertainment industry but unfamiliar to football fans worldwide.
Fan anger intensified last week when it became clear loyal supporters would have no access to the cheapest category tickets and that fans who wanted to reserve a ticket for all of their team’s potential games, through the final, would not get refunded until after the tournament.
In another climbdown Tuesday, FIFA said it would waive its administrative fees when refunds are made after the July 19 final.
Even before FIFA’s statement, the supporter group FSE called Tuesday for a rethink of World Cup policy for fans with disabilities.
It said FIFA’s resale platform was offering disability-access seats at multiple times face value, with no assurances the tickets would be sold to people with disabilities. Those fans also can no longer get free tickets for companions, as they could at the last World Cup in Qatar.
In Qatar, Infantino began an eve-of-tournament speech with a tirade at perceived critics of the host nation, FIFA and himself that included the line, "Today I feel disabled.”
"True inclusion requires action,” FSE said Tuesday, reminding Infantino of that speech. "It’s time for FIFA to move away from populistic statements and respect its own commitments.”