FIFA’s official ticket resale marketplace is turning the World Cup into a rich man’s game
The World Cup trophy on display – a symbol of football’s ultimate prize, now standing at the centre of a tournament many ordinary fans are being priced out of before a ball is even kicked.
Image: safa.net
When FIFA unveiled its official ticket resale Marketplace for next year's World Cup in North America, it was framed as a fair, transparent platform designed to protect fans from fraud while allowing genuine buyers to resell tickets they could no longer use.
In practice, however, the system is shaping up to be something far less noble: a sanitised, FIFA-approved playground for ticket scalpers to cash in – spectacularly so.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the resale prices attached to the World Cup opener between Bafana Bafana and co-host Mexico. These are not hospitality packages or premium corporate seats. They are Category 2 and Category 3 tickets – the very tiers that were marketed as accessible to ordinary fans.
Category 3 tickets originally sold for $895 (R14,960) are now appearing on FIFA’s official resale platform for as much as $4,346 (R72,650). Category 2 tickets, bought at $1,290 (R21,560) during the first ticket phase, are being relisted for a staggering $14,000 (R234,000). These markups – ranging from nearly 400% to well over 900% – are not taking place on shadowy third-party websites, but on FIFA’s own endorsed marketplace.
Meanwhile, on the StubHub resale portal, the cheapest ticket will set you back by R62,039, down from R77,326 two weeks ago. The most expensive ticket will cost you R773,186, down from R1.3 million.
The first phase of tickets opened on September 10. Less than three months later, on December 15, the official resale Marketplace went live. In that short window, tickets had already migrated from hopeful supporters to opportunistic resellers, primed and ready to exploit demand – all under FIFA’s watchful eye.
Football has always been a working-class game, sustained by ordinary people who plan and sacrifice to be part of it. For many supporters, a World Cup ticket is weighed against groceries, school fees and medical bills. Resale, in that sense, should exist to protect fans – not to reward speculation.
Instead, FIFA’s official marketplace has turned accessibility into an illusion. Lower-category tickets, sold as affordable, are now being flipped at prices that exclude the very supporters they were meant for. Miss out in the initial phase and the message is blunt: this tournament is not for you.
FIFA’s talk of inclusivity rings hollow when its own platform legitimises profiteering from ordinary fans. By allowing inflated resale prices, the governing body has normalised scalping while distancing itself from responsibility. As Bafana Bafana prepare for a historic World Cup opener, many of their supporters will watch from afar – priced out not by lack of passion, but by a system that has forgotten who football belongs to.
IOL Sport
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