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In a release on Tuesday, FIFA said that it had received 20 million ticket requests and had come to the conclusion that fans of qualified teams would 'benefit from a dedicated ticket pricing tier'.
After facing tremendous backlash over its pricing of 2026 World Cup tickets, FIFA on Tuesday announced that it would slash the price of some tickets for “loyal fans” of nations that have already qualified for the 2026 edition of the tournament.
In a release on Tuesday, FIFA said that it had received 20 million ticket requests and had come to the conclusion that fans of qualified teams would "benefit from a dedicated ticket pricing tier".
Dubbed the 'Supporter Entry Tier', tickets under this category will now be available for a fixed price of $60 for each of the 104 FIFA World Cup matches, including the final.
What changes for fans?
FIFA announced that these new entry tier tickets would be allocated to supporters of already-qualified teams, with the selection process and distribution of these tickets being left up to individual Participating Member Associations (PMAs), which will have the freedom to define their own eligibility criteria and application process.
It should be noted that these tickets are strictly for the 'loyal fans' of national teams (e,g, members of official national supporter clubs) and will not be available in the general public random draw.
The Supporter Entry Tier of tickets will now constitute 10% of the total ticket quota given to each national team, and the break-up is as follows:
- Affordable range (50%): Supporter Entry Tier (10%) priced at a fixed $60 and Supporter Value Tier (40%) priced variably, ranging from $120 to $265 for group stage matches, and higher for knockout stages.
- Premium range (50%): Supporter Standard Tier (25%) priced between $400 and $500 for group stage matches and Supporter Premier Tier (25%), ranging from $500 to $700 for group stage matches and going up to over $3,000 for the final.
Backlash against FIFA's ticket pricing
The move comes after heavy criticism of FIFA's "extortionate" pricing for the 2026 World Cup, which will be jointly hosted by the United States, Mexico, and Canada.
While the move was welcomed by Football Supporters Europe (FSE), a group that represents the interests of supporters in European football, FIFA could still find itself facing criticism.
Commenting on the revision, the group said, "While we welcome FIFA’s seeming recognition of the damage its original plans were to cause, the revisions do not go far enough to reconcile."
Noting that the move showed that FIFA's pricing policies were "not set in stone", FSE called for further cuts, saying only a "few hundred fans per match" would be lucky enough to take advantage of the reduced prices.
It also highlighted that no new pricing structure had been announced for fans with disabilities, as well as the absence of companion tickets.
"For the moment we are looking at the FIFA announcement as nothing more than an appeasement tactic due to the global negative backlash," FSE said.
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