More anger over World Cup 2026 tickets as New Jersey fan zone charges for entry | OneFootball

Fifa faces fresh criticism after launching a World Cup 2026 fan park in New Jersey which requires fans to buy tickets in advance.

Football’s global governing body has already been lambasted by fans, the media and national associations after charging record high prices for tickets to next summer’s World Cup, in what is set to be the most expensive ever tournament to attend – and the most lucrative that Fifa has ever staged.

The backlash provoked a climbdown by Fifa, which announced that 10 per cent of all allocations for qualified nations will now involve tickets fixed at just $60 (£44.70) for every game. The announcement was nevertheless made without any consultation with fan groups, who didn’t know it was coming and feel the numbers are still divisively low.

Now some fans are angry that they are expected to pay to enter fan zones, which are typically free around the cities where major sporting events are held, and allow fans without stadium tickets to gather and enjoy the action.

The announcement was made on Fifa’s New York New Jersey Instagram account. Tickets to the fan zone, which will be located in Liberty State Park, are listed at $12.50 (£9.50) on the Ticketmaster website.

It is unclear whether the decision around fan zone ticketing was made by Fifa or the local host committee. It is officially marketed as the “Fifa Fan Festival”, which is trademarked by Fifa. The Independent has contacted Fifa for comment.

“Every other World Cup the fan fests have been FREE,” one Instagram user commented under the announcement.

Another wrote: “only fifa will make tickets to the actual game so expensive that most fans only option is to watch at a fan fest…and then make fans pay for that too.”

This week Fifa also confirmed that $50m (£37.5m) will be up for grabs for the winning nation. The Fifa Council approved prize money for the tournament at a meeting in Doha on Wednesday, with the overall fund available to competing nations set at $727m (£545m), up 50 per cent on the 2022 finals in Qatar.

Each nation will receive $1.5m (£1.1m) from Fifa in preparation costs and at least a further $9m US dollars just for competing in the group stage.

The confirmation comes as fan groups accused Fifa of playing “PR games” over ticket prices.

Tickets at a new price of $60 (£45) will be made available in the allocations national associations sell to their most loyal fans, after widespread criticism of Fifa’s initial pricing was revealed last week.

However, only 10 per cent of tickets within this allocation will be available at this price. For the England v Croatia match, for example, it would benefit around 400 out of the more than 4,000 fans able to buy tickets through the England Supporters Travel Club (ESTC) allocation.

For the remainder, tickets will start at £198 for that opening match, and at an eye-watering £3,140 for the final.