For the first time in the tournament’s history, part of the FIFA World Cup will be played in Canada this summer.
For a lifelong fan, this was Amola Joshi’s moment to attend her first World Cup match.
“This is my dream,” said Joshi in an interview with the Calgary Journal. “We were reading all the news, and all these things from the newspaper about FIFA, and all the games, and about players, and everything, and then, now, I thought, now I can afford it, and I can go. It’s possible for me.”
Calgary’s Joshi has travelled the world to watch the Euros, visiting the FIFA Museum in Zurich, and watching the Women’s World Cup on home soil in 2015
The one thing standing in the way of Joshi’s dream now has her—and fans across the world —calling foul.
Ticket prices have soared since the last World Cup in 2002 in Qatar.
The claim
Football supporter group Fans Europe claims, “If a supporter were to follow their team from the first match to the final through a PMA allocation, it would cost them a minimum of $6,900 USD – nearly five times as much as during the FIFA WC 2022 in Qatar.”
This comes in response to FIFA’s high prices for the 2026 World Cup, which has fans like Joshi feeling betrayed.
The Calgary Journal used Canada’s Personal Member Association (PMA) to fact-check whether ticket prices have, in fact, increased fivefold since the last World Cup.
In FIFA’s most recent sales period, the cheapest ticket for Canada’s opening match in Toronto would cost around $1,300.
The next two Canada games in Vancouver would cost around $370.
If Canada were to win all their games in the knockout round, it would cost a fan more than $7,000 just for tickets at face value.
In total, that would cost a fan $9,190 to follow Canada’s soccer team through the entire tournament with a category three ticket.
If a fan were to buy the same tickets on the resale market, the cost would be a whopping $27,000, including resale fees.
According to Statista, which pulled information from ticket sales at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, a category three ticket would cost around $69 USD or approximately $94 CAD.
If you were to follow a team from the opening match through to the finals of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, it would cost a total of US$1,827, or approximately $2,500 CAD.
That is a 368 per cent price increase for the upcoming World Cup.
When compared to the resale market, it costs over 10 times as much to follow a team.
Fans Europe would be considered false under these circumstances.
Why Are Prices So High?
Joshi has been applying for World Cup tickets since the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and has seen prices steadily increase.
“Every four years, it goes a little bit higher, which is not bad, but this one looks terrible,” said Joshi. “This one looks like a different kind of World Cup. It looks like FIFA is not organizing. Someone else is organizing.”
FIFA’s rationale for the prices is that it applies variable pricing in the World Cup ticketing process.
“Ticket prices throughout the sales phases are based on a review of demand and availability for each match,” FIFA said in a statement on its website.
FIFA is considered a non-profit organization, and claims that 90 per cent of the ticket sale revenue is “redistributed back into the global game, supporting the growth of football around the world.”
The verdict on ticket prices
In the bid book released in 2018, FIFA planned to allocate only seven per cent of the seats as category four seats due to the “unique demands” of the markets.
Those tickets were originally priced at $21 USD.
The original prices set in the bid book have been changed. For example, an opening match game in a category three seat would cost $320 USD or $430 CAD.
That means FIFA more than doubled the expected price for Canada’s opening match.
A ticket to the World Cup final saw the highest jump with a 679 per cent increase.
In response to the global backlash, FIFA has introduced a new “Supporter Entry Tier,” which would set ticket prices at US$60.
This tier will take 10 per cent of each PMA’s allocated tickets. Each PMA is designated eight per cent of the stadium for their fans.
This means only 0.8 percent of the stadium will be considered under the tier.
“The pricing model adopted for FIFA World Cup 26,” said FIFA in an email statement to the Calgary Journal,” reflects the existing market practice for major entertainment and sporting events within our hosts on a daily basis, soccer included.”
FIFA adds that the prices also reflect the secondary ticket market, “which has a distinct legal treatment” worldwide.
“We are focused on ensuring fair access to our game for existing but also prospective fans,” reads FIFA’s statement.
The fact remains, it’s going to cost soccer fans such as Joshi 368 per cent more to attend the upcoming World Cup here in Canada.
Joshi, however, remains cautiously optimistic about receiving the fateful message that she has the tickets, but her dream is in the hands of the FIFA lottery system.
“If it’s in my own country, I haven’t got an opportunity, then, how will I get an opportunity four years later to go to another country? It’s like it was a dream, but now, I gave up my dream,” said Joshi.
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