Football fan advocacy group Football Supporters Europe (FSE), together with consumer rights organisation Euroconsumers, has lodged a formal complaint with the European Commission against FIFA over the high cost of tickets for the 2026 World Cup.
The groups allege that FIFA’s monopoly over ticket sales for the June 11–July 19 tournament in the US, Canada, and Mexico has allowed the organisation to charge “excessive prices” and impose opaque and unfair purchasing conditions on European fans.
“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 in a statement.
Ticket prices for the final have already sparked outrage. The cheapest tickets available for the 2026 final start at $4,185—over seven times higher than the cheapest tickets for the 2022 World Cup final in Qatar. For comparison, tickets for the UEFA Euro 2024 final start at just €95 ($100).
FSE noted that FIFA’s own bid documents projected an average ticket price of $1,408, a figure that has been far surpassed. Promises of affordable tickets for North American fans, initially set as low as $21, have also not materialised. For example, the Group J opener between Austria and Jordan at Levi’s Stadium in California saw the cheapest tickets priced at $60, while most high-demand matches start at $200.
FIFA has confirmed that nearly seven million tickets will be available for the expanded 48-team tournament, with each fan limited to four tickets per match and a maximum of 40 across the tournament’s 104 games.
FSE argues that the inflated prices and restrictive sales conditions unfairly disadvantage fans and represent an abuse of FIFA’s monopoly over World Cup ticketing.
