FIFA to offer limited number of cheap World Cup tickets after backlash

Football Australia will be able to issue $90 tickets to the Socceroos’ fans after FIFA agreed to slash the price of some World Cup tickets following a global backlash.

But confusion remains around how fans can access the discounted tickets, with about 500 per Socceroos match likely to be available.

FIFA said cheaper tickets will be made available for every game at the tournament, going to the national federations whose teams are playing. Those federations will decide how to distribute them to fans who have attended previous games at home and on the road.

Some fans will even get $90 seats for the final instead of being asked to pay $6300.

The cheaper tickets, labelled “supporter entry tier”, will be 10 per cent of the federation’s allocation – which itself will vary depending on the size of each stadium.

The “participant member association” allocation is eight per cent of stadium capacity per country per match.

Australia’s group games are in Vancouver (54,000 capacity), Seattle (69,000) and Santa Clare (71,000), meaning they will respectively receive 432, 552 and 568 $90 tickets for their matches against UEFA play-off winner (Turkey, Romania, Slovakia or Kosovo), USA and Paraguay.

The next cheapest tickets are priced at about $400.

Football Supporters Association Australia chairman Patrick Clancy said fans welcomed the change, but believed not enough had been done.

“There’s still a lot of uncertainty about how fans can access these tickets,” Clancy said.

“If Australian fans have already entered the ballot and put in applications, will they still be able to access these tickets? Will they now have to, you know, pay the higher prices?

“To get tickets, you have to enter a ballot system (through FIFA). It’s not first come, first serve – essentially, you just hope for the best.”

Clancy said the backflip showed FIFA had been “caught on the run”.

“FIFA and FA need to make sure that when they’re making decisions about football, that they talk to fans and that they listen to fans and put in place policies and ticket prices that better meet the needs of fans,” he said.

FIFA’s climbdown follows meetings between senior officials in Doha this week, where federations are understood to have pushed back at the pricing model.

Fans worldwide reacted with shock and anger last week on seeing FIFA’s ticketing plans that gave participating teams no tickets in the lowest-priced category.

The co-hosts had pledged eight years ago – when they were bidding for the tournament – that hundreds of thousands of $32 tickets would be made available.

FIFA has also faced fierce criticism for a ticket pricing strategy that includes dynamic pricing, in which prices can increase due to demand, and acting as its own resale platform, taking a cut in the process.

Socceroos fans can also access the limited ticket allocation for World Cup matches through the ‘FA+’ program, which is a $99 paid membership.

With AP, PA