Football Australia will be able to issue $90 tickets to the Socceroos’ most loyal fans after FIFA agreed to slash the price of some World Cup tickets following a global backlash.
Some fans will even get $US60 ($90) seats for the final instead of being asked to pay $US4,185 ($6,300).
However, they are likely to only equate to around 500 tickets a match that Australia plays.
FIFA said that the cheaper tickets would be made available for every game at the tournament, going to the national federations whose teams are playing. Those federations will decide how to distribute them to fans who have attended previous games at home and on the road.
The cheaper tickets, labelled “Supporter Entry Tier”, will be 10 per cent of the federation’s allocation — which itself will vary depending on stadium size.
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The “participant member association” allocation is 8 per cent of stadium capacity per country per match.
Australia’s group games are in Vancouver (54,000 capacity), Seattle (69,000) and Santa Clara (71,000), meaning it will respectively receive 432, 552, and 568 $90 tickets for its matches against a UEFA play-off winner (Turkey, Romania, Slovakia or Kosovo), USA and Paraguay.
So will its opponents. The next cheapest tickets are priced at around $400.
FIFA’s climbdown follows meetings between senior officials in Doha this week, where federations are understood to have pushed back at the pricing model.
Fans worldwide reacted with shock and anger last week on seeing FIFA’s ticketing plans that gave participating teams no tickets in the lowest-priced category.
The co-hosts had pledged eight years ago — when they were bidding for the tournament — that hundreds of thousands of $US21 ($32) tickets would be made available.
FIFA has also faced fierce criticism for a ticket pricing strategy that includes dynamic pricing, in which prices can increase due to demand, and acting as its own resale platform, taking a cut in the process.
When the original pricing was announced Football Supporters Association Australia chairman Patrick Clancy said the prices were high but he thought many Socceroos’ fans would still buy them.
“These are historically high prices — even the minimums,” he said.
“I’m sure there will be some people who choose not (to go), and that’s absolutely fine, but I suspect the large majority will not be put off.”
AAP/AP/PA