The Football Supporters Europe (FSE) group filed a lawsuit on Tuesday with the European Commission against football's world governing body Fifa over "excessive ticket prices" for this year's World Cup finals.

The FSE and the Euroconsumers group said the tickets for the June 11-July 19 tournament in the US, Canada and Mexico were overpriced and complained that Fifa has a monopoly over the sales.

"Fifa holds a monopoly over ticket sales for the 2026 World Cup and has used that power to impose conditions on fans that would never be acceptable in a competitive market," the FSE said in a statement, adding that prices for the final were way above those for the 2022 final in Qatar.

"The cheapest openly available final tickets now start at US$4,185 – more than seven times the cost of the cheapest 2022 World Cup final ticket," FSE said, adding that, by contrast, the cheapest Uefa Euro 2024 final tickets were 95 euros.

"Fifa's own bid documents projected an average ticket price of US$1,408 but that number has been left far behind," it added.

According to Fifa, almost seven million tickets have been made available. Each person can buy up to four tickets per match and a total of 40 for the whole competition.

There will be a total of 104 matches played at this expanded World Cup, the first ever to feature 48 teams, and ticket prices have soared for the most in-demand games.

FSE said the North American bid had initially promised tickets would be available from as little as US$21, but instead the cheapest tickets to go on sale have been for US$60, for example for the Group J opener between Austria and Jordan at the Levi's Stadium in California.

Most tickets cost at least US$200 for matches involving leading nations.

Some tickets on offer for the final on Fifa's official resale site are being offered at astronomical prices.

One category three seat for the game at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey was being advertised for an eye-watering US$143,750, over 41 times its original face value of US$3,450.

Fifa president Gianni Infantino insists ticket prices are simply a consequence of the huge demand.

"In the US in particular there is this thing called dynamic pricing, meaning the prices will go up or down", depending on the match in question, he has said. (AFP)



Edited by Thomas McAlinden