The Football Association has been praised for withholding the cheapest band of tickets available to England supporters until the day before their World Cup matches to prevent them from being resold at a higher price.
Thomas Tuchel's side begin their World Cup campaign on Wednesday against Croatia, backed by thousands of fans. However, tournament organisers Fifa have faced heavy criticism over their ticketing approach, with some supporters paying heavily inflated sums to attend matches.
England supporters will have the opportunity to purchase hundreds of 'entry tier' tickets costing $60 (£45) courtesy of The FA. As detailed by The Times, tickets for England games will not be released until the day before fixtures to prevent them from ending up on resale sites.
Fifa has claimed that United States legislation means they must allow tickets to be resold at any price. They are currently taking 30 per cent of the value of each ticket sold via their official resale platform.
Gianni Infantino has spoken of unprecedented demand for the tournament, which is being held across the United States, Canada and Mexico, and defended the prices. He said: “If you sell it at a lower price point in this particular market it would have gone — which is perfectly legal in this country ... in secondary markets at much, much, much higher prices and where would the money go then? Well, to those who organize secondary markets or black market activities and not to football.”
Infantino also suggested that World Cup ticket prices compare favourably to other sports in the country, pointing to the NBA Finals between the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs as an example of prices surging due to growing interest.
