By: Express News ServiceDecember 11, 2025 11:43 PM IST 3 min readFIFA World Cup trophy is displayed during the draw for the 2026 soccer World Cup at the Kennedy Center in Washington, Friday, Dec. 5, 2025. (Dan Mullan/Pool Photo via AP)A FIFA World Cup comes once every four years and ticket prices for next year’s edition in North America are likely to burn a hole in fans’ pockets.Tickets in the ‘supporters value’ tier for matches in the United States, Mexico and Canada next June-July are priced at $4,185 (more than Rs 3,77,500). It is a monumental increase from the price of the cheapest tickets at the last edition in Qatar in 2022 – a little over $600 (less than Rs 55,000).Fans group Football Supporters Europe (FSE) has called the pricing strategy ‘extortionate’ and called on FIFA to stop ticket sales immediately. They called it “a monumental betrayal of the tradition of the World Cup, ignoring the contribution of supporters to the spectacle it is”.In a departure from recent tournaments, group stage games are being priced based on their attractiveness, rather than at a flat rate, BBC Sport reports.Also Read | What the FIFA World Cup draw does not reveal at first glanceOfficial supporters’ groups get about 4,000 tickets for each game. All other tickets are allocated through the random ballot process, other than those held back by FIFA for corporate partners. Capacities at the World Cup venues range from 94,000 at Dallas to 45,000 at Toronto.FIFA should “immediately halt PMA [Participating Member Association allocation] ticket sales, engage in a consultation with all impacted parties, and review ticket prices and category distribution until a solution that respects the tradition, universality, and cultural significance of the World Cup is found,” FSE said.“The lowest price category will not be available to the most dedicated supporters through their National Associations, as FIFA chose to reserve the scarce number of category four tickets to the general sales, subject to dynamic ticket pricing.”Story continues below this adThe FSE also cried foul at the dynamic pricing model adopted by the world body for the 2026 mega event.“For the first time in World Cup history, no consistent price will be offered across all group stage games. Instead, FIFA is introducing a variable pricing policy dependent on vague criteria such as the perceived attractiveness of the fixture. Fans of different national teams will therefore have to pay different prices for the same category at the same stage of the tournament, without any transparency on the pricing structure enforced by FIFA,” it complained.“The bid document released in 2018 promised tickets priced as low as $21. Where are these tickets now? The full way to the final, according to the same bid book, was supposed to cost $2,242 in the cheapest category. This promise is long gone.” © The Indian Express Pvt LtdTags:fifa world cup