One enthusiastic England fan calculated the entire cost of his family of 5, when chosen the cheapest travel and accommodation options, to watch every England game all the way to the Final, should they make it to the entire length of the tournament.
This person’s calculations included 5 people’s flights from England to the USA and back for £2500, while spending £5000 on accommodation for 5 people across 4 weeks.
However, things are far from simple since the England national team play their initial group stage matches across different parts of the US, ranging from Texas, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. The cost of travelling between the states alone will cost somewhere in the thousands, especially when the prices will be inflated during the tournament.
The group stage tickets themselves are totalling up to somewhere around $3500 for 5 people when sat in Category 3 seats and should the Three Lions qualify to the knockouts, the prices for the same category tickets will increase monumentally.
Should they qualify for the knockout stages, the tickets from the ‘Round of 32’ to the Final will cost an upwards of £30000 for 5 people. That’s a 300% increase in price for a group of 5 to see one match from every knockout stage despite one additional stage (Round of 32) in the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
The colossal increase in the ticket prices for the upcoming World Cup has faced a tremendous amount of backlash from fans with many urging the English FA and FIFA to lower the ticket prices to make the tournament affordable for everyone.
The England Supporters Travel Club, the official supporters’ membership scheme for fans of the England men’s national football team, have repeatedly urged the FA to intervene and help lower the prices for the tickets with one long standing ESTC member e-mailing them, “Which side are you on?”
“Your silence, and the longer it continues, can only be increasingly regarded as a dismissal of fans’ concerns, threatening to not only create a permanent rupture between the fans and the organisation charged with protecting the game here in England, but also risking toxicity seeping into the relationship between fans and the England squad itself.
“It’s time to make a stand. As I said in my previous email, fans fuel the game in many ways. Teams would cease to exist without the outlay on tickets, merchandise and subscriptions. However, those who take that dedication for granted do so at their peril – it is not dedication without limits.”
“Ahead of awaiting, perhaps pointlessly, a response to this latest email, I ask you one final question: Which side are you on?”
A very powerful message which represents every England fan wishing to go to the World Cup without spending a fortune on just tickets alone.
Especially after seeing the ridiculous ticket prices set by FIFA, many have tipped England fans to save their money and support their country from their homes instead of spending a fortune to go and attend the games across the pond in the US.
@DesLennis99 The prices are bad enough. The approach to reselling is nothing short of corruption and blatant robbery.
@waltermalungaca Supply and demand. It’s basic economics that there is someone out there willing to pay that to watch England. Fifa are never gonna budge for you because they are in business. So watch on TV.
@lageneraless I mean.. it’s an audacious plan with extreme costs. But I wonder what the same programme would have cost the last two worldcups?
@NinetayFour Was anyone even surprised that it would be this expensive. American sports are famous for being expensive, not a shock they would do this for the World Cup
@PurelyFc Football has been stolen from us
@XSports58880 Crazy stuff! The stadiums will be full of flyes…
@getcomeuppance everyones budget is woefully understated. Cost for hotels, rental cars, and transit between matches is either ignored our understated by 5x.
@Matty_Boyes16 The fact the FA doesn’t want to call-out FIFA because it’s scared it will upset a future World Cup bid is everything is wrong with that corrupt organisation. Infantino making Sepp Blatter look like a model citizen.
@NeilGilchrist63 And it is the domestic game in peril also. VAR is a tool to break up the game in order to monetise the delays with advertising. This World Cup will prove the catalyst for such things.. I believe the supporters of every club should join together and fight for this game
@cjcmacleod1980 Its an utter disgrace. I go all over the world with England, but this has even taken me back. Group stage cat 1 are nearly treble what they were ina Qatar. Pure greed.
@Langley1968 The only way to get your point across is to boycott an England game at Wembley….and by boycott, it has to be everyone. Playing to an empty stadium gets worldwide attention As fans, we hold all of the power but never use it. If people stop going, they’d soon change their tune.
@markpmakey ..silence is not golden in this case..clarity is needed asap as people need to start making travel and accommodation arrangements soon..let’s see what happens in the coming weeks as it’s looking like a shambles at the Fa ..yet again
@WBAcambolia Well said. Time to make a stand. How pathetic the FA look here
@JPMelly1 All England fans should boycott the World Cup, embarrass the FA and saves them ££thousands, Win Win!
@namornonez I think we should boycott the tournament set up zones in major cities, televise the World Cup matches on big screens with great sound systems, sell real beer not bud shite and serve edible food at a great price.
@NeilRands It’s only fuelling the anger and division. They can’t even be bothered to tell us when and where (in the US) the warmup games will be, only that they’re “capped”. That has a major impact on plans (and budgets)!
