FIFA charges up to US$10,990 for a seat in the 2026 World Cup final, as indicated by the prices of the first open ticket sale. These are the most expensive total admission tickets in the history of a football match.
In his candidacy dossier for the World Cup, United States, Canada and Mexico They declared that tickets for the final would have a maximum cost of US$1,550.
When tickets went on sale in December for members of the official fan clubs in each countrythe most expensive was listed at a price of US$8,680.
Prices rose further as the final phase of the sale began on Wednesday.
Tickets for the Qatar World Cup final cost the equivalent of US$1,604 for the highest priced seats.
It is difficult to determine the actual cost of tickets for this summer’s tournament, as FIFA has never made its pricing structures public.
Likewise, the organization is applying a dynamic pricing modality in which rates vary at the beginning of each sales phase based on previously registered demand.
Late last year, the cost of the first batches of tickets was described as an “enormous betrayal”.
In December, FIFA announced the availability of a reduced number of tickets for US$60.
This Wednesday the open sale to the public began, which offered a new perspective on the rates that are being applied.
Final prices
It is impossible to evaluate the overall ticket pricing policy without having detailed information on the rates or the volume of seats available in each category.
A good indication, in any case, is to consult the FIFA ticket sales website to verify which seats are still available and at what prices.
However, this does not allow us to confirm whether there are even more expensive tickets or if, on the contrary, there was a greater availability of seats in the more affordable categories.
Ticket prices for the World Cup final were reported to have increased by up to 38% during the open sales phase compared to prices set at launch last December.
Apart from the category one entry, Priced at US$10,990:
Category two rose 32.78%, going from US$5,575 to US$7,380.
Category three increased by 38.23%, going from US$4,185 to US$5,785.
FIFA also did not give advance notice of which matches would be available or at what prices on Wednesday, just as the “last minute sales” period began.
Those who managed to access discovered that prices had risen for the matches with the highest demand, including the matches of the favorite teams and other key matchups in the knockout rounds.
What we learned by joining the queue
BBC Sport joined, along with fans, the queue to purchase World Cup tickets on Wednesday around 3:20 p.m. British time.
A waiting message was displayed which, at 4:00 p.m., changed to a red circle with the following text: “We are almost there…”.
By 5:00 p.m. a countdown timer had appeared. We were two minutes away from reaching the front of the line when suddenly the remaining time jumped back to 15 minutes.
When we finally gained access, we experienced the same technical failure as thousands of fans.
Fans who logged on early were mistakenly directed to a queue for “PMA tickets,” reserved for fans of the winning teams in the playoffs that same week.
Once inside, users were sent to a page where a code was required to unlock ticket sales for those specific matches.
By the time the error was detected, those fans were forced to start over from the end of the correct digital queue.
Any chance of getting a ticket to one of the more attractive matches was gone.
FIFA did not offer any explanation for the error although it assured that, by 5:00 p.m., the links were already working correctly.
Once back in line, it was six hours and 14 minutes before we were granted access to the ticketing page.
Of the 72 group stage matches, 35 were listed as having tickets available but, at the time of our initial inquiry, there was no allocation for the England or Scotland matches or any of the knockout round matches.
With the exception of the host nations, only one match purchase was available from the top ten ranked countries: one from the Netherlands.
Prices ranged from US$140 to US$2,985. The average price of the tickets shown was US$358.
The most expensive group stage match observed was the tournament opener, between Mexico and South Africa, at US$2,985. For this match, only a tiny part of the entire capacity of 87,000 spectators was available.
In addition, we were able to consult corporate hospitality packages, including one for the match between England and Panama, which was priced at US$124,800 for a luxury suite that included 24 tickets to the match, food and drinks; This represents a cost of US$5,200 per person.
The availability of tickets for matches appears to vary constantly and FIFA has indicated that new tickets for any match could go on sale up to the moment of the kick-off.
At 08:00 this Thursday there were still 13 matches available, although in six of them there were only tickets left for companions of people in wheelchairs, which should not be sold to the general public.
It is somewhat controversial that FIFA has not made free tickets available for companions of fans who use wheelchairs.
These tickets must be purchased at full price and may not be located adjacent to each other.
The opening match of the US team against Paraguay, scheduled for June 13, was the one with the largest number of tickets still on sale with 1,406 category one seats at a price of US$2,735.
Canada’s first match against Bosnia and Herzegovina was the only other match with a relatively good offer: 846 category one tickets were still on sale at a price of US$2,240.
FIFA’s resale platform – which is likely to carry even higher prices as a 15% commission is charged to both buyer and seller – will reopen on Thursday.
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