“Tickets for the World Cup final at almost 11 thousand dollars: A betrayal?”

FIFA is shocking the football world with exorbitant prices for the final of the 2026 World Cup, which could cost up to $10,990 (around €8,333) per ticket – the highest amount ever charged for a general admission ticket to a football match. This revelation comes after the first open sale of tickets for the event, leaving fans in shock and questioning the accessibility of the biggest spectacle in world football.

When the United States, Canada, and Mexico presented their bid to host the World Cup, they assured that the maximum price for the final would be “only” $1,550 (around €1,174). However, the reality is brutally different. In the first phase of ticket sales in December, the most expensive ticket already cost $8,680 (€6,581). For comparison, the maximum price for the final of the Qatar World Cup in 2022 was $1,604 (€1,214). FIFA has never released an official price list, and now resorts to a dynamic pricing system, adjusting the values according to demand in each sales phase.

This dramatic increase in prices has been described by some critics as a “monumental rip-off,” especially for the most passionate fans who dream of watching the final live. In December, FIFA even announced a small batch of tickets for $60 (€45), but this latest open sale revealed that prices for the most coveted matches – including the final – have skyrocketed by up to 38%.

Analyzing the ticket categories for the final, the numbers are impressive: the category one ticket has risen to nearly $11,000, category two increased by 32.78%, from $5,575 to $7,380, and category three saw a jump of 38.23%, from $4,185 to $5,785. These figures reflect a price escalation that threatens to turn the World Cup into an increasingly exclusive event for those with very deep pockets.

The open sale on Wednesday was marked by confusion and technical failures. BBC Sport followed fans in the virtual queue and reported problems from the outset: an apparently endless waiting message, a countdown timer that was counting down incorrectly, and an error that sent many fans to the wrong queue intended only for recent playoff winners, forcing them to start over and thus losing the opportunity to secure tickets for the most sought-after matches.

Even after overcoming these obstacles, fans faced a wait of more than six hours to access the sales system. Of the 72 matches in the group stage, only 35 had tickets available, and the matches for England and Scotland, as well as the knockout stage games, had no tickets for sale at the time of access. Prices ranged from $140 (€106) to $2,985 (€2,261), with an average of $358 (€271) for the available matches. The most expensive game available was the tournament’s opening match between Mexico and South Africa, with very limited tickets for the 87,000 seats in the stadium.

This scenario raises crucial questions about FIFA’s pricing policy and the true access fans have to the biggest football event on the planet. With astronomical prices and a chaotic sale process, many supporters are left out, while tickets for the most critical moments disappear quickly. The official confirmation of these prices and transparency in ticket distribution remain one of FIFA’s biggest challenges, in a World Cup that promises to be historic but could be marked by the exclusion of true football lovers.

This article first appeared on Apito Final.