Last week, FIFA announced that over 4.5 million football fans had entered a draw for the first release of tickets for the FIFA World Cup 2026 to be held across North America in June and July next year. Today applicants will find out if they’ve been allocated a time slot to buy tickets when slots open on the 1st October.
But exactly how much fans will pay is still largely unknown, thanks to FIFA’s decision to use dynamic pricing to determine the final price football fans will have to pay.
FIFA have said that ticket prices will start at $60 for the cheapest group-stage seats and range to $6,730 for the most expensive tickets to the final. So far, so clear and it won’t surprise any sports fan that prices rise for games in line with higher stakes and excitement.
However, the exact price paid will be subject to change once the sales kick off in October. According to a NYT article report on the announcement, the use of what they call ‘variable pricing’ will “adapt prices as per the demand we see, as per the remaining inventory”.
This makes it highly likely that ticket prices will change before and after the final December draw to decide groups and finalize group stage dates and locations.
This has surprised and angered many people – including New York Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani, who has launched the ‘Game over Greed’ petition calling on FIFA to drop the system which he says will make matches unaffordable for many local fans.
A US soccer fan based in England is another one who’s unhappy with the decision:
I would have loved to see my team play on home soil, but I didn’t apply for tickets. Dynamic pricing just feels like a scam – FIFA have all the information available to calculate a ticket price based on how much it will cost to put on a World Cup plus the profit they’re aiming for and then stick to it. And cheaper prices for less popular matches can be set by organisers’ good judgement instead of putting fans through some mysterious AI labyrinth.
Tyson Stevens, Atlanta United FC, Reading FC and USA supporter
Euroconsumers and Football Supporters Europe, the body that represents football fans in Europe, raised the issue with FIFA back in July 2025 when reports about using dynamic pricing for the World Cup first emerged.
In a joint letter to FIFA secretary general, Mattias Grafström, the organisations recognised that dynamic pricing can bring flexibility and benefits for consumers, but warned that deploying it for significant, global events like the World Cup raises big questions about competition, fairness, accessibility and the treatment of supporters that must be addressed.
In emotionally charged and offer-constrained markets, where fans have no meaningful alternative ticket providers…this approach risks transforming fans into targets of revenue maximisation rather than valued participants in a shared cultural experience.
Euroconsumers and Football Supporters Europe want to empower fans to participate in a thriving and fair ticket market and have called on FIFA to:
In September, FIFA reverted back explaining the context of ticket sales in the USA where dynamic pricing is more common and the impact of a loosely regulated secondary market, yet remained unclear on the defining parameters of the upcoming World Cup price policy.
Euroconsumers and FSE remain engaged to pursue a constructive dialogue with FIFA and prevent a worrying precedent being set for how dynamic pricing can be misused to exploit fan loyalty and passion for profit.
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