Dec 11 (Reuters) - Football Supporters Europe (FSE) has called on FIFA to immediately halt sales of national team allocations for next year's World Cup, accusing football's governing body of imposing "extortionate" ticket prices that risk shutting ordinary fans out of the tournament.
In a statement on Thursday, the European fan umbrella group said prices for tickets allocated to Participating Member Associations (PMAs) – typically distributed via official supporters' clubs or loyalty schemes – had
reached "astronomical" levels.
FIFA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
FSE said based on price tables quietly circulated to national associations, a supporter following their team from the first group match through to the final via the PMA route would pay at least $6,900, almost five times the equivalent cost at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
FSE said national team supporters were being asked to pay the full amount in early 2026 in order to secure the right to buy tickets all the way to the final.
Adding to fans' frustration, FSE said the lowest price category – Category 4 – would not be made available to the most loyal supporters through their associations, with FIFA reserving those tickets for general public sales and subjecting them to dynamic pricing.
The group called that decision a "monumental betrayal" of World Cup tradition and of the contribution of traveling supporters to the tournament's atmosphere.
"For the prices that have been put up by FIFA, we're a bit stunned," FSE Executive Director Ronan Evain told Reuters.
"This is a handful of people who are trying to make as much money as possible from the tournament. And we believe this approach is putting the very nature of the tournament at risk."
"For the final, tickets are going up to about $4,000. You need fans, you need the life in the stands, you need the colour, you need the atmosphere. With these prices, none of this will happen," he said.
For the first time at a World Cup, FSE said, there will be no consistent prices across all group-stage games, with FIFA instead introducing variable pricing based on opaque notions such as the "attractiveness" of a fixture.
That means fans of different teams could pay different amounts for the same category of ticket at the same stage, with little transparency on how prices are set.
Evain said the new structure would push many ordinary fans beyond what they can afford, particularly families.
"A lot of people that were hesitating in travelling to the U.S. are now saying they need to take an extraordinary financial risk, especially if you're a family," he said.
"We are in the region of $30,000 for a family of four. The vast majority of football fans can't afford this. Even in Europe."
FSE urged FIFA to pause PMA ticket sales and open consultations with member associations, supporters' groups and other stakeholders "until a solution that respects the tradition, universality and cultural significance of the World Cup is found."
(Reporting by Kurt Hall in Washington; Additional reporting by Rory Carroll in Los Angeles; Editing by Jamie Freed)
