Football fans hoping to watch England take on Norway in the World Cup quarter-finals are facing truly eye-watering prices, with one resale ticket listed for a staggering £6 million on FIFA’s official platform.
The astronomical listing appeared just hours after England’s thrilling 3-2 victory over Mexico at the Azteca Stadium in the early hours of Monday morning.
With the Miami match now completely sold out, touts have wasted no time trying to cash in on the massive demand.
It’s a World Cup record high, and it shows just how desperate some fans are to see this clash between two European heavyweights on Saturday evening.
England fans are facing a hefty bill to watch them vs Norway
|
REUTERS
The price breakdown across FIFA’s resale platform really does make for grim reading.
Category one seats are going for anywhere between £2,409 and that bonkers £6 million figure, while category two tickets stretch up to £77,599.
Even the supposedly budget-friendly category three options range from £2,155 to £43,116.
The cheapest ticket available when journalists checked the portal was around £1,465 for a category two seat.
Compare that to what England supporters originally paid when tickets first went on sale – between £510 and £1,080 – and you can see just how wild things have become.
The Football Supporters’ Association hasn’t held back in its criticism of how FIFA has handled ticketing for this tournament.
England reached the last 16 with a dramatic win over Mexico
|
REUTERS
In a scathing statement, the group said: “Fifa has deliberately designed an online exchange which allows tickets to be sold at vastly inflated prices with world football’s governing body grabbing 15 per cent of the money from both the buyer and the seller.”
They added: “In Fifa’s world, greed is good, and they’ll reap the rewards.”
It’s worth noting that sellers also have to cough up a 15% fee to FIFA when offloading their tickets through the platform, meaning the governing body profits handsomely from both sides of every transaction.
Ticket prices have been a controversial topic throughout the World Cup
|
REUTERS
FIFA President Gianni Infantino has defended the pricing structure, arguing that lower ticket prices would simply push sales onto unofficial markets.
“If we do something wrong, then probably everyone selling tickets in North America is doing something wrong,” he said ahead of the tournament.
Infantino explained that selling at cheaper prices “in this particular market” would mean tickets ending up on secondary markets “at much, much, much higher prices.”
He asked where that money would go, answering his own question: “Well, to those who organize secondary markets or black market activities and not to football.”
