World Cup tickets too expensive, complaint to the EU against FIFA begins

One formal complaint at the European Commission against the Fifa. It is the path chosen by Fsethe European Fans’ Federationafter seeing the appeal launched in December to ‘calm’ the price fall on deaf ears, judged exorbitantof the tickets for the next World Cup. She joined the initiative Euroconsumersan organization representing consumers across the continent: the theory is that Fifa used its monopoly on the sale of tickets “to impose conditions on fans that would never be acceptable in a competitive market“.

“For many, it is aunrepeatable experience“, state the appellants: no event attracts crowds of fans like a Worldalso because the tournament scheduled between USA, Canada and Mexico from 11 June to 19 July it will host for the first time 48 teams. Hence the request to FIFA to abandon its “dynamic pricing policy“, Of “freeze rates” for the next one sales phase in April and to publish the number of remaining tickets for each category “at least 48 hours in advance.”

The exorbitant prices and the disputed practices

According to Fse and Euroconsumers, i cheapest tickets for the finale they currently depart from $4,185 (3,609 euros), “over seven times more” than the price of World Cup 2022 in Qatar. Also in the crosshairs is what is defined as “misleading advertising” for a group stage ticket at $60, “practically sold out before it even went on sale.” In fact, the same opaque sales rules given that “location of seats“, “location of the stadium” and even “names of the teams on the pitch” would not be guaranteed at the time of purchase. The two organizations also denounce FIFA’s use of “aggressive sales tactics“, including the application of a 15% commission.

FIFA’s response and the impact on prices

The Fifa has not yet commented on the complaint. In mid-February, after the second phase of ticket sales, the president, Gianni Infantinohad ensured that all 104 matches would be played with the sold out. According to him, there were “508 million requests (of tickets) in four weeks for approximately 7 million tickets availablerequests coming from over 200 countries around the world”. It is as if, in one month, there had been 104 editions of the Super Bowl“, the final of the American football championship, the most followed sporting event in the United States, he explained: “And obviously – he concluded – this has a impact on prices“.