One of the joys of international football as far as I’m concerned, is that by and large, going to far flung places in Europe is very often compensated for by the fact that away ticket prices are incredibly reasonable. Even an away ticket to the top ranked team in Belgium, only cost £22. The same price as one and a half of those strong cloudy looking beers when we got to Brussels, but still reasonably priced. Iceland, one of the most expensive countries in Europe, was £29.
At the other end of the spectrum, Montenegro away was £7! By the time we’d got to the stadium and back, if it was free it would have been too expensive, but that’s a story for another day. The point is that the expense of watching away games in Europe has always been the travel, and not the match. Until now.
Embed from Getty ImagesIn Qatar I paid £68.50 for my ticket. It was high up in the corner of the stand next to the Red Wall but that is still pretty good value given it was the first World Cup game for Cymru since 1958. If we got to the tournament in the USA, the same ticket would cost anywhere from £134 to just under £200. And to be clear, there are very small numbers of the cheapest tickets available. And the final price is dependent on whether or not FIFA thinks it is an appealing fixture or not, meaning the prices of group games are not set, but variable depending on who plays.
But that’s not even the worst of it. Should Wales get out of the group, the cheapest quarter final tickets are coming in at just over a mindblowing £500. Now I know I’m stretching reality here, but if Wales got to the final (of a tournament we have not actually qualified for yet…), the cheapest ticket is £3,119 EACH. Imagine you’ve watched your country all over your continent and then they get to the World Cup final and you have to find three grand for a ticket.
Embed from Getty ImagesAnnoyingly, the absurd prices are commonplace in America and I’d imagine American fans won’t be too shocked. To buy a Josh Allen Buffalo Bills NFL Jersey, the one with the embroidered name tags on it, would set you back £230. I’ve been to an NFL game in Washington at a time when they were not even close to a competitive team, and seemingly no one baulked at paying $500 a ticket.
The reality here is that international football, which was once (at least for me) the purest form of football – no transfer windows or contract talks – is now a huge money making enterprise, despite it being registered as a “non profit” organisation.
In other news, Gianni Infantino got paid $4.6 million last year following a 33% pay rise in 2024. Non profit? Do me a favour. When Sepp Blatter left we were promised no corruption and someone running FIFA in the best interests of football, and not themselves.
Embed from Getty ImagesIt’s also safe to say that FIFA don’t need the money. Not even close. It is pure greed. In a non World Cup year (2021) they generated $766m in revenue. 2025 is a non World Cup year and they are projected to generate $2.4 BILLION due to the Club World Cup.
I am no accountant, but a glance at FIFA’s outgoing investments through their charitable arm, the FIFA foundation (which mainly serves to get them tax breaks in a lot of different countries), shows that money put back into football compared to the sums generated are, shall we say, unbalanced. The point being they could allow everyone into the stadiums for free for the World Cup matches and they’d still make an obscene amount of money. Why is it so different for this World Cup then and so much more expensive? It can’t be just the American audience who are used to more expensive event ticketing? It’s hard to not think that there is something nefarious going on here.
Embed from Getty ImagesBy the way, did you know that FIFA just gave out their first ever Peace Award to friend of Jeffrey Epstein, Donald Trump?
So do us a favour FIFA, Infantino and whoever else is greasing the wheels here, and for once do the right thing. Rethink, change the prices and do something in the interests of fans. This is not entertainment. This is identity. This is passion, pride and patriotism. This is excitement, and a feeling you cannot buy, no matter how hard you try to sell it.
Embed from Getty ImagesI don’t want to see Robbie Williams singing, and Iker Casillas talking about how great the World Cup is. Save a few quid, put a few balls in a bag and get Clive from HR to pull them out so I don’t have to listen to excruciating “banter” between Rio Ferdinand and Tom Brady.
We are at a point where something severe needs to happen because the World Cup should be the pinnacle of football, not just a TV show which only millionaires can get tickets to. If you want football to grow, then make it accessible to everyone who loves it. Don’t pretend you’re a good group of people by putting a few quid into the grassroots when you’re generating billions of dollars.
Hard not to feel football’s being done over by FIFA, UEFA, Infantino, … and Trump too.
Have thoughts? Contact Dai via @Colemans_Dream