Ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup in North America, the exorbitant prices the governing body is currently charging for match tickets have become a trending issue, with fans’ groups, including Football Supporters Europe, branding the system a “monumental betrayal” and calling for a review.
According to a recent survey, the pricing for the World Cup final at the MetLife Stadium in New York on July 19, 2026, has sparked the biggest controversy, with the cheapest ticket to attend the event costing almost $2,030, which is 10 times higher than the minimum ticket to attend the last World Cup in Qatar.
Match tickets to attend other phases of the tournament have also been significantly jacked up by FIFA compared to the 2022 Qatar World Cup.
In full comparison, tickets for group stage matches involving non-host nations during the Qatar World Cup were priced between $11 and $200, while those for the next year’s tournament co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico range from $60 to $805, in a vast increase for the high end of the general price.
During the last tournament, ticket prices were heavily discounted for Qataris attending their country’s group stage matches, in contrast to the minimum of $560 up to $2,735 that would cost a fan planning to watch matches in the same phase involving either the United States, Canada or Mexico.
In Qatar, FIFA sold round-of-16 tickets for a minimum of $19 and a maximum of $275. However, the pricing for this phase increased ninefold for the tournament in North America, with tickets currently listed between $170 and $890.
The quarter-finals have also seen a substantial rise across all categories for the upcoming tournament, with tickets to attend these matches ranging from $275 to $1,775, compared to $82 minimum and $426 maximum paid for the same set of games in Qatar.
Football fans will shell out between $420 and $3,295 to watch a semi-final game at the 2026 tournament, with the minimum price three times higher than the $137 needed to attend a similar event in Qatar. The maximum to attend a semi-final fixture in Qatar was $956.
Meanwhile, general admission tickets for the final are available for $2,030, while options for better seating cost up to $7,875. This is a huge jump when compared to the most expensive seats in the final of the previous tournament, which sold $1,607.
In response to FIFA’s latest pricing, the FSE called the system astronomical, noting that the move prevents the most dedicated supporters from affording the cheapest tickets for the World Cup through their national teams.
“In the price tables gradually and confidentially released by FIFA, tickets allocated to national associations…are reaching astronomical levels. Adding insult to injury, the lowest price category will not be available to the most dedicated supporters through their national associations, as FIFA chose to reserve the scarce number of category four tickets to the general sales, subject to dynamic ticket pricing,” the fans’ group said in a statement.
The group added, “For the first time in World Cup history, no consistent price will be offered across all group stage games. Instead, FIFA is introducing a variable pricing policy dependent on vague criteria such as the perceived attractiveness of the fixture. Fans of different national teams will therefore have to pay different prices for the same category at the same stage of the tournament, without any transparency on the pricing structure enforced by FIFA.”
The significant surge in ticket prices for the 2026 World Cup has been attributed to the new ticketing system adopted by FIFA, which allows costs to fluctuate in real time based on demand, the teams playing, and proximity to the event. In contrast, 2022 used a more fixed-price model.
