And rightly so, he was fantastic when he came on.
Thoughts on the price of the World Cup tickets @rioferdy5
A man of the people would surely call @FIFAcom & Infantino out 🤷🏻♂️
Or was your pay packet for the draw (acting 🤯😭) to buy your silence 🤫
Football Supporters' Association statement on World Cup prices:
The prices set for the 2026 World Cup are scandalous, a step too far for many supporters who passionately and loyally follow their national sides at home and abroad.
Everything we feared about the direction in which FIFA wants to take the game was confirmed - Gianni Infantino only sees supporter loyalty as something to be exploited for profit.
Prices for England's matches have been set as some of the highest, priced at $7020 if you want to follow the team from start through to the final.
If you are "lucky" enough to reserve the cheapest ticket for the final you'll need to hand over $4185, approximately £3200 - that's £35 per minute of the game.
FIFA call this the “Supporter Value” category - that's a laughable insult to your average fan.
Supporters are expected to hand over all of this money in February to FIFA, who will keep it in their bank account to accrue interest. If England are knocked out before the final they'll then return it, minus an admin fee of course. They are beyond shameless.
This is a tournament that is supposed to be celebrated by the world, where fans of all nations come together for the love of football. FIFA have decided to make it all about the money and the elite who can afford it.
For FIFA, loyalty is not the hard-working fan travelling thousands of miles in support of their team at qualifiers around the continent. A game that should be for all is now only for those who can afford it.
ACTION NEEDED
We back Football Supporters Europe in calling for a halt in ticket sales and we are calling on the Football Association to work with fellow FAs to directly challenge these disgraceful prices.
We call on all national associations to stand up for your supporters, without whom there would be no professional game.
The most loyal fans feel they have been stabbed in the back. Those same fans, their passion, their colours, their noise will be missing in America, Mexico and Canada, unless significant price reductions are introduced.
Supporters who have looked forward to this tournament for years, supporters who have been to multiple World Cups, supporters who were excited about this being their first tournament will all be missing as it will be unaffordable.
Who needs to follow England away for disappointment when FIFA can deliver that six months before a ball is kicked? The life has been sucked out of this tournament before it starts.
Let’s hope the FA takes up the ticket price fight with Fifa on behalf of the thousands of England fans wanting to go to the World Cup. £5,000 for all eight games if* (*big if*) England reach final is unconscionable. It’s actually immoral. The FA can surely see that.
Thomas Tuchel’s team need as many supporters behind them as possible, especially members of the England Supporters Travel Club, backing the team in the difficult moments that lie in store. I know fans, some top cappers, just going for a couple of games now, not even the full group stage, because of the cost – tickets, internal travel, accommodation, taxes, etc. Fistfuls of dollars. Bagfulls of debts.
As well as greed, it’s also naivety by Fifa. Pricing out real fans risks problems with segregation. Plus the atmosphere will be diluted if many of the usual noise-bringers are priced out. TV will hate that. It pays Fifa fortunes for atmosphere generated by supporters.
Fifa argues that money gets ploughed back into the game. But why alienate those who help make the game special? Imagine if there are empty seats as at the Club World Cup. Fifa forgets Jock Stein’s great maxim. “Football without fans is nothing.” So treat them properly, not as cash machines. Otherwise, World Cup 2026 risks becoming the Corporate Games.
The FA rarely stands up to Fifa nowadays. The last time was 2011 when then chairman David Bernstein stood up to Sepp Blatter. (In 2022 it quickly backed down over armband-gate). Who now will stand up against Fifa? The FA could, of course, offer to subsidise some of the tickets from the substantial revenue it will make from Fifa but really the governing body of the global game should see sense.
Fifa’s slogan is: “For the Game. For the World”. Not “For The Few”. #FIFAWorldCup
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