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The original was posted on /r/soccer by /u/Sparky-moon on 2025-12-12 09:19:23+00:00.
The Football Association must put out a statement, as early as Friday, condemning the obscene ticket prices being charged for next summer’s World Cup.
What purpose would it serve? Unfortunately the FA cannot influence those prices which have been set, as football supporters’ groups have rightly complained, at “extortionate” amounts of money.
So, firstly, let’s be clear where the blame squarely lies.
The prices are fixed by Fifa and the World Cup organising committees, presumably, to claw back the vast cost of hosting an unprecedented 48-nation tournament – far too big anyway – across three huge countries.
And, obviously, turn a pretty profit for Fifa which it will argue goes to the greater good of the game.
It must be pointed out that the FA has no say in what is charged. There is no consultation. It only found out when we did.
It must also be pointed out that it will be different at the next European Championship in 2028, which the FA will co-host along with Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland, and where it has already been stated that the perfidious use of so-called ‘dynamic pricing’ will not be adopted. Tickets will be affordable. Laudably we have that guarantee.
Perfidious is the right word, by the way. Dynamic pricing – reacting to supply and demand with prices fluctuating – suggests that prices can go down as well as up when, in reality, those prices simply spiral to an unethical extent as desperation takes hold. It feels like emotional blackmail on a larcenous scale.
The people’s game? Do us a favour.
So, what purpose would an FA statement serve? Well, it would simply be a case of doing the right thing. And sometimes that is all you can do. Of stating a belief that these prices are obscene and wrong. Of putting your head above the parapet. Of protesting. Of being on the right side. The supporters’ groups are calling on Fifa to put a halt on sales. And they are correct to do so.
If the FA and other reasonable-minded federations also expressed their unhappiness it would at the very least put pressure on Fifa and embarrass them. OK, we know it will probably not make any tangible difference – embarrassment is something Fifa does not register – but saying nothing from the FA is worse as it implies complicity in what is going on.
The FA does not, understandably, want to open itself up the accusation of playing to the crowd – quite literally – or grandstanding when, actually, what it says or does will not make any difference.