FIFA World Cup organisers on Tuesday announced a new cut-price ticket category for the 2026 tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico, responding to growing criticism from fans over soaring prices. FIFA said it has created a limited “Supporter Entry Tier” priced at $60 for all 104 matches, including the final, in what it described as an effort to help travelling supporters follow their national teams.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!In a statement, football’s global governing body said the initiative was “designed to further support travelling fans following their national teams across the tournament”. The $60 tickets, equivalent to around €51, will be reserved exclusively for fans of qualified teams and will account for 10 percent of each national federation’s ticket allocation.
The move follows sharp criticism from fan organisations, led by Football Supporters Europe (FSE), which last week branded FIFA’s original pricing plans “extortionate” and “astronomical”. While welcoming the announcement, FSE said the measure fell well short of what supporters had been promised.“While we welcome FIFA’s seeming recognition of the damage its original plans were to cause, the revisions do not go far enough,” FSE said in a statement. The group previously claimed that ticket prices for 2026 were almost five times higher than at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, calling the pricing a “monumental betrayal of the tradition of the World Cup”.
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FSE said that a fan following their team from the group stage to the final would still face a minimum cost of $6,900, despite a 2018 bid document promising tickets starting from $21. On Tuesday, the organisation described FIFA’s move as an “appeasement tactic”, arguing that only a few hundred fans per match would realistically benefit from the $60 tier, while most supporters would continue to face record prices. It also criticised the lack of specific provisions for disabled fans and their companions.British Prime Minister Keir Starmer echoed those concerns, welcoming the lower-priced tickets but urging FIFA to go further. “I encourage FIFA to do more to make tickets more affordable so that the World Cup doesn’t lose touch with the genuine supporters,” he wrote on X.FIFA said national federations would be responsible for ensuring the cheaper tickets go to “loyal fans closely connected to their national teams”. It also confirmed that fans who buy knockout-round tickets but see their team eliminated earlier will have administrative fees waived on refunds.The announcement comes amid what FIFA described as “extraordinary global demand”, with more than 20 million ticket requests already submitted. The first ticket sales draw, covering all price categories, is scheduled for January 13.
