When I wrote my article on the 2026 World Cup draw, the conclusion was clear: FIFA can no longer be reformed from within. The organisation is too deeply enmeshed in corruption, its leadership captured by commercial interests and insulated from genuine football culture. What we are seeing now with World Cup ticket pricing is proof by example: A stark, brutal confirmation of that thesis.
Just days after the draw, the cost of attending the tournament (before you even factor in flights, hotels, food, or beers outside the stadium) has ignited outrage across the global fan community. And it’s not hyperbole to call this outrage justified.
The Price Shock
According to leaked allocations published by national associations and corroborated by multiple outlets:
- The cheapest tickets for group stage games are hundreds of Euros — often starting above €150–€600. (see: Focus)
- Quarter-final and semi-final tickets leap into the high hundreds and low thousands. (see: Sky Sports)
- Final match tickets — even in the lowest available official category — are priced well into the €3,500–€7,000 range before dynamic pricing and resale mark-ups. (see: N-TV)
All told, a loyal supporter trying to follow their team from the first whistle to the final could be forced to pay around $6,900 or more just for tickets. Let that sink in: €6,000+ before flights, lodging, food, local transport, fan gear, beers, merch, or anything else.
Fans call it what it is: Betrayal
Fan organisations such as Football Supporters Europe (FSE) have not minced words. In a statement that should haunt FIFA executives, FSE described the current ticket pricing as a “monumental betrayal of the tradition of the World Cup,” and has called for an immediate halt to ticket sales until real dialogue and a pricing fix happens. (see: Football Supporters Europe)
Their criticism hinges on a few core points:
- Loyal fans: The ones who register with national supporters’ clubs and have earned access to tickets, don’t even get Category 4 (cheapest) seats in their allocation. Instead those are reserved for general sales with dynamic pricing.
- The pricing itself is variable based on opaque assessments of “fixture attractiveness,” meaning equal seats cost different amounts depending on who you support.
- The promise of cheap tickets from the original World Cup bid, as low as $21 in some projections, has evaporated entirely.
This isn’t just price gouging in a vacuum: It’s a deliberate structural choice that reshapes who can meaningfully attend the world’s premier sporting event.
What the Media Is finally saying
German outlets have been particularly blunt, highlighting that many fans will face over €6000 in ticket costs alone to see every Germany match through to the final (all without flights, hotels or matchday expenses included). (see: Focus)
Commentators have labelled the pricing “a mockery” and “blatant exploitation,” observing that this is less a fan-friendly global showcase and more a commercial mega-event with fans reduced to price tags. (see: Euronews; BBC; France24; ESPN; Focus)
This is not an Accident: It’s the Outcome of FIFA’s current Governance
Let’s be blunt: this is the natural endpoint of the FIFA model:
- A governing body with limited transparency.
- A leadership that prioritises commercial revenue over fan culture.
- A Board and voting structure that marginalises traditional football powers in favour of bureaucratic voting blocs.
- A dynamic pricing model imported from commercial leagues, where supply is manipulated purely for profit.
Contrast this with the rhetoric FIFA used during the bidding process: Cheap seats, accessible football, global inclusion, and what we have now is a naked contradiction, not a miscommunication.
But here’s the Part many still don’t want to Admit
Yes, FIFA is the face of this outrage. But we — WE — are part of the system that allowed it to happen.
National associations across Europe and beyond, many with centuries of footballing tradition and global fanbases, have watched this transformation and done… nothing essential. They continue to fund and collaborate with FIFA without demanding meaningful structural change:
- No real accountability for pricing decisions.
- No insistence on genuine fan representation.
- No mechanisms to protect affordability.
We bear responsibility, because for decades we cheered at every World Cup, and accepted FIFA’s framing that it alone can manage global football.
Guess what? That model has now weaponised its monopoly — and fans are the victims.
The inevitable Reality: We were (and still are) stupid
Let’s stop pretending this is shocking.
If you still believed that FIFA genuinely cared about the interests of real football fans (the people who travel, sing, sacrifice, and live for this sport) then you weren’t just naïve. At this point, you were wilfully stupid.
Because none of this happened overnight. FIFA didn’t suddenly wake up in 2025 and decide to betray fans. This has been decades in the making, in plain sight, with warning after warning ignored. Corruption scandals, opaque governance, power grabs, commercial overreach… all dismissed with the same tired excuse: “It’s bad, but what can we do?” Well, now you know what happens when you do nothing.
But FIFA didn’t do this in isolation. And pretending otherwise is another convenient lie.
For years, we allowed our national football associations to drift along, comfortably embedded in FIFA’s system, without holding them to account. Yes, in today’s structure the traditional football nations are outvoted by a bloc of smaller, politically aligned associations. But let’s not kid ourselves: Without the major football countries — the World Cup winners, the global fanbases, the broadcasters, the sponsors — this tournament would collapse as a global event. FIFA’s power depends on them far more than it admits.
Change will never come from inside FIFA. It can only come from the major football nations acting together, with courage, not excuses, and forcing a confrontation. And that pressure must start with us. Because as long as we keep filling stadiums, and waving flags while grumbling online, nothing will change. We are complicit. We complain — and then we comply.
That is the most uncomfortable truth of all.
Just my 5 cents.
//Alex
alexreusch 
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