FIFA starts sales: How to get to World Cup tickets

Almost nine months before the start of the football World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the USA, FIFA will start selling the first regular tickets on Wednesday. First of all, however, not all fans are allowed to access – and there are also a few things to consider. The most important questions and answers before the start.

If you are interested in tickets, you have to register for the sale beforehand. Registration is possible on the FIFA website from Wednesday at 5 p.m. (CEST) by September 19. However, the prerequisite for this is the possession of a visa card. The payment card provider, a sponsor of the World Association, has the exclusive rights in the first phase.

If you are lucky in the random selection process, from September 29, by email, will receive a date and a time window that begins on October 1 for buying a ticket. Then individual tickets should be available for all 104 World Cup games-according to the FIFA, it is not guaranteed that everyone can buy tickets. There should also be tickets in the package for the venues and the preliminary round games of the three organizers.

The cheapest tickets from $ 60 (almost 51 euros) should be available for the preliminary round games. The most expensive entry ticket for the final, which takes place in East Rutherford near New York on July 19, costs $ 6730 (around 5760 euros). The World Association did not announce any further price categories.

This should also be because there are no fixed prices anyway. As FIFA confirmed, they should be dynamically adapted to demand. This wants to “optimize the income, but also the number of spectators in the stadiums, told FIFA official Heimo Schirgi of the AP news agency.

If particularly many people want to buy a certain entry ticket, its price could be clearly adapted in the middle of the sale. On the other hand, if the demand is low, the opposite case is also possible: at the club World Cup, ticket prices had dropped to less than $ 14 (just under 12 euros). FIFA did not say exactly how the prices should be adjusted.

Dynamically adapting ticket prices to the demand to how FIFA does it, Parsya Bashiri from the Bremen Consumer Center is critical. So the logic behind the prices is hard to see through. To this end, fans would be treated unevenly if they had to pay different prices for the same tickets. “Especially since many consumers simply could not afford the prices financially,” says Bashiri.

From the point of view of consumer advocates, the first phase is only open to VISA card holders. Nevertheless, such a hurdle would put pressure on fans “which could be made to make decisions that they would otherwise not have made,” said Bashiri.

The second phase follows just a few weeks after the first – then the ticket purchase should also be possible with other means of payment. The registration is expected to take place from October 27th to 31st, the sale will then increase between mid -November and early December. Phase three begins after the group draw, which takes place in Washington on December 5. Then fans can also apply for fixed duels.

Tickets for the fan blocks separated by team as well as reservations for the KO games, which only become valid when a nation progresses, should be available at a later date. The participating nations itself should also receive contingents again. The DFB had sold tickets through its own fan club at past tournaments.

If you have secured a ticket and want to take the flight to North America, you have to take care of it beforehand. Although German citizens in the issuing countries do not require a visa in the issuing countries, but must apply for permission online beforehand in the USA and Canada.

In Canada, around 4.30 euros will be due in the United States after a planned price increase from September. Fans with other citizenships may apply for a visa, which can take several months.