LOWER-PRICED tickets for residents of the host nation have been a staple of Fifa World Cups for some time, but futbol fans in Mexico, and soccer fans in Canada and the United States, will not benefit from such an initiative when the tournament visits their shores next year.

At recent World Cups in Russia and Qatar, group stage tickets were available to locals for as little as £10, and for the 2018 final, tickets were priced at £80 for Russian residents.

It was a similar story in Brazil in 2014 and South Africa in 2010. High prices for travelling fans were still an issue, but those who had seen the tournament land in their backyard were offered affordable tickets, which seems the fair and obvious thing to do.

This will not be the case for fans in Canada, Mexico, or the United States in 2026, though, as Fifa takes advantage of the fact that extortionate pricing has become accepted in North America, and especially in the United States. Sometimes, high ticket prices for events are even celebrated and seen as a sign of success.

Recent pushback on this might have arrived too late in the day, but the fact it has arrived at all is important.

New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has taken the bold step of challenging Fifa, calling on the international football governing body to scrap dynamic ticket pricing, place a cap on resale prices, and offer discounted tickets for locals.

The campaign is called Game Over Greed, and points out that: “The biggest sporting event in the world is happening in our backyard, and the vast majority of New Yorkers won’t be able to see it.

“This year, for the first time, Fifa is using dynamic pricing for ticket sales. They can raise prices in real time, depending on how much profit they think they can make off of us. 

“Those tickets can then be resold on an official Fifa platform with NO price cap — yet another method of gatekeeping the game. 

“And to make matters worse, unlike for the past three World Cups, there are no seats set aside for residents.”

Much like the work of Zack Polanski in Britain, Mamdani has breathed new life into left-wing politics, embracing new media and getting to the crux of the on-the-ground issues that people care about and that affect their everyday lives. 

This kind of approach is vital when it comes to combating and counteracting the growth of the ideas of far-right political figures whose increased mainstream media presence and acceptance is dangerous. Countering them by talking to people on the ground and dealing with the real causes of the issues affecting them, then getting this out into the media sphere, is vital.

Many politicians realise that sport is one of the ways they can connect with constituents in this way, and Mamdani’s work in this area comes from a genuine interest in football at grassroots and participation levels, whether this be from his time as a player in high school or as a fan.

Some have asked what this has to do with a New York City mayoral candidate when the 2026 host stadium in the area is actually in New Jersey, but this is like saying someone in Brixton shouldn’t be concerned about football matches at Wembley.

On the east and west banks of the Hudson River, New Jersey and New York are intertwined, especially when it comes to sport. Though the host venue in the region will be branded with the name of New York, it will also bear the name New Jersey, which is where the Meadowlands stadium actually sits in East Rutherford. Rather than wonder why Mamdani of NYC is concerned with this, the better question to ask might be why more from the New Jersey side haven’t joined in.

Mamdani will probably know Fifa is unlikely to change its stance on dynamic pricing and reselling. After all, this is likely one of the main reasons the United States was chosen to host this tournament and the preceding Club World Cup.

Fifa said as much in its response to the media on this matter. 

“The pricing model adopted generally reflects the existing and developing market practice in our co-hosts for major entertainment and sporting events on a daily basis, soccer included,” said a Fifa spokesperson. 

“We are focused on ensuring fair access to our game for existing but also prospective fans, and are offering group stage tickets starting at $60, a very competitive price point for a major global sporting event in the US.”

Even if little will come of it immediately, it is still worth raising these issues to start chipping away at this acceptance of dynamic pricing and reselling. 

The request for low-cost tickets for locals, however, is a more realistic immediate aim, and even though it might be too far down the line to change ticket allocation, it is worth local politicians shouting about this issue, especially when it has been standard practice at previous World Cups.

Fifa says that the money it earns is vital for keeping the sport going across the 211 national associations affiliated with it, including some that rely on such money to merely exist, but its huge cash reserves, which reach several billion pounds, show that it doesn’t need to do this by fleecing supporters who are part of the dynamic that makes the game as popular as it has become, and who make these tournaments so memorable.

Though the corporate and VIP culture is a growing blight on football, it is mostly a reflection of a wider capitalist society that fosters this kind of thing. 

It is accepted and acknowledged that clubs, national associations, and governing bodies need a certain level of income to keep the game running in a capitalist system. 

High-priced seats for those who can afford it is one way of doing this, but this is only stomachable when it also includes a lower tier of pricing for the majority of supporters. 

This lower tier of affordable pricing often doesn’t exist, and these clubs and organisations will look to take advantage of regular attendees at the “lower” ticket price bands, as well as banking the sponsorship and corporate culture money at the higher end. 

Practices like dynamic pricing go one step further and make it more of an uncontrolled free-for-all that will spiral to levels that are unaffordable for most, and leave many genuine football fans unable to attend matches.

This will be the case at the 2026 World Cup, where pricing means many attendees will be waiting to be entertained by an event rather than being active participants in the organic flow of an international tournament and involved in these games as sporting occasions. 

Though dynamic pricing worked both ways at the recent Fifa Club World Cup, leading to some tickets being available for around $10, this is unlikely to be the case at the World Cup, where demand will start high and remain high for most games.

Some lower-profile group stage matches might see some reductions in price, but for the most part, this will be an expensive experience for anyone wanting to watch even just one match at the tournament.

“People across this country, across the world, are fed up with a model of ticket pricing that views fans as a commodity that can be priced higher and higher and higher,” Mamdani said at an event in the Bronx.

It sums up the idea that Fifa wants to use the 2026 World Cup to sell this game rather than to celebrate it.