Fans accuse FIFA of 'betrayal' over World Cup ticket prices - ESPN

Fans have accused FIFA of a «monumental betrayal» after the latest ticket prices for the World Cup began circulating Thursday.

The governing body allocates 8% of tickets to national associations for games involving their team to sell to the most loyal fans.

And a list published by the German soccer federation revealed prices ranged from $180 to $700 for varying group stage games. The lowest price for the final was $4,185, and the highest was $8,680.

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Those group stage prices are very different from FIFA's claims of $60 tickets being available. The target from United States soccer officials when bidding for the tournament seven years ago was to offer hundreds of thousands of $21 seats across the opening phase of games.

Fan organization Football Supporters Europe (FSE) described the current prices as «extortionate.»

It said, based on the information it had available, fans faced paying €6,900 ($8,111) to attend every match from the first game to the final via the participant member association (PMA) allocation, which is designed to be made available to fans who attend the most matches, with tickets at fixed rather than dynamic prices. According to FSE, that was five times more than fans would have paid to do so at the past finals in Qatar.

«This is a monumental betrayal of the tradition of the World Cup, ignoring the contribution of supporters to the spectacle it is,» it said in a statement.

FSE pointed out that rather than adopting a standard price across all group matches, pricing appeared to have been calculated