The $11k World Cup final ticket - what we learned from first open sale

The first open sale of tickets for the 2026 World Cup showed Fifa is charging up to $10,990 (£8,333) to be at the final.

It is thought to be the most expensive ever general admission to a football match.

In its World Cup bid book, the US, Canada and Mexico said tickets to the final would cost a maximum of $1,550 (£1,174).

Then, when the first batch of tickets went on sale in December, the most expensive was listed at $8,680 (£6,581).

Tickets for the Qatar World Cup final cost the equivalent of $1,604 (£1,214) for the top-priced seat.

Establishing the actual cost of tickets for this summer’s tournament is difficult as Fifa has never released its pricing structures.

It is also using a version of dynamic pricing, whereby prices change at the start of each sales point depending on past demand.

Late last year the cost of the initial ticket releases was described as a “monumental betrayal”. In December, Fifa announced a small number of $60 (£45) tickets.

On Wednesday tickets were put on open sale for the first time – and gave another glimpse at what is being charged.

What prices have been observed for the final

It is impossible to assess the overall ticket pricing with no information on the prices, or the volume available in each category.

Going through the Fifa ticketing website and seeing what is still available and what is being charged gives a good indication. However, that does not confirm if there are either more expensive tickets still, or if more were available in more affordable categories.

From what has been observed, ticket prices for the World Cup final increased by as much as 38% in the open sale compared to December’s release.

Apart from the $10,990 (£8,333) category one ticket:

Category two was up 32.78% from $5,575 (£4,227) to $7,380 (£5,596).

Category three increased 38.23% from $4,185 (£3,173) to $5,785 (£4,386).

Fifa also gave no advanced notice of which games would be available on Wednesday, or at what prices, as the “last-minute sales” period began.

Those who did get through found that prices had gone up for the most in-demand fixtures – including the top teams and other key knockout games.

What we learned when we joined the queue

BBC Sport joined the queue for World Cup tickets alongside the supporters on Wednesday at about 15:20 BST.

A holding message was in place, and at 16:00 this changed to a red circle with the message: “Almost there…”

By 17:00 a countdown clock had appeared. We were two minutes from the front when the time suddenly jumped back up to 15 minutes.

When we did gain access, we experienced the same technical glitch as thousands of fans.

Supporters who logged on early were wrongly directed into a queue for “PMA tickets”, reserved for fans of this week’s play-off winners.

Once through, users were sent to a page where a code was required to open up a sale for those fixtures.

By the time the mistake was realised, those supporters were forced to start again at the back of the correct virtual line. Any chance of securing a ticket for one of the more attractive matches had gone.

Fifa did not provide a reason for the error but said that by 17:00 the links were working properly.

Once back in the queue it took six hours and 14 minutes to be granted access to the ticket page.

Of the 72 group games, 35 matches were listed with tickets available – but there was no allocation for the England or Scotland games, or any of the knockout matches, when we initially made it through.

Across the 35 matches, prices ranged from $140 (£106) to $2,985 (£2,261). The average price of those displayed was $358 (£271).

The most expensive group stage match seen was the first of the tournament between Mexico and South Africa at $2,985 (£2,261), with only a tiny proportion of the 87,000 capacity available.

Additionally, we were able to view corporate hospitality packages, including one for England v Panama which was $124,800 (£94,444) for a luxury suite with 24 match tickets, food and drink – $5,200 (£3,935) per person.

The availability of games appears to be changing all the time, and Fifa has indicated new tickets could be released for any game right up to kick-off.

By 08:00 on Thursday, 13 games were still showing – though six of these only had wheelchair companion tickets, which should not be sold to the general public.

Controversially, Fifa has not made free tickets available to the assistants of fans using wheelchairs. Tickets must be bought at full price and they may not be situated next to each other.

The USA’s opening game against Paraguay on 13 June had the most tickets still on sale, with 1,406 category one tickets priced at $2,735 (£2,072).

Canada’s first match against Bosnia-Herzegovina was the only other match with relatively good supply – 846 category one tickets still on sale at a cost of $2,240 (£1,697).

Fifa’s resale platform, which will likely bring even higher prices – with both buyer and seller charged a 15% fee – reopens on Thursday.

Read the full article here