When the FIFA World Cup was held in Qatar four years ago, Mymensingh native Partha Sarathee Ghosh fulfilled a lifelong dream by attending four matches live at the venue. He watched Brazil face Switzerland, Spain take on Japan, Argentina’s clash against Australia, and Spain’s knockout meeting with Morocco.
For the then 42-year-old banker, it was an unforgettable experience. He had bought the four tickets for roughly Tk 1 lakh.
Partha had purchased the tickets through FIFA’s online portal and spent 12 days in Doha, staying at a friend’s home and relying mostly on public transport, which came free with the Hayya Card -- a World Cup document that doubled as an entry permit and provided complimentary access to Qatar’s metro and bus services. The card also offered free entry into the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Oman.
Although Partha did not make use of those additional travel opportunities, the World Cup itself proved deeply fulfilling.
“It was a smooth experience, and a gratifying one for me because it was my first time watching World Cup matches live at the venue,” Partha fondly reminisced to The Daily Star.
Ever since, Partha, a passionate football fan and travel enthusiast, had eagerly awaited the FIFA World Cup 2026 in the United States, Canada and Mexico -- the biggest and supposedly the most inclusive World Cup in history.
Yet, long before the tournament has even kicked off, it has already begun to feel anything but inclusive for ordinary supporters like him.
FIFA began selling tickets for the 104-match tournament through phased online releases from September last year. Demand, however, has vastly outstripped supply, with an estimated 60 million requests expected for around six million tickets.
Like all member associations, the Bangladesh Football Federation received a limited allocation from FIFA -- only 330 tickets in total. Bangladesh received a relatively larger share for the group stage and progressively fewer for the knockout rounds, including just 10 tickets for the final.
Ticket prices allocated through BFF ranged from approximately Tk 29,000 to Tk 11.4 lakh, depending on the ticket category. Applications were accepted during a five-day window in January and, according to federation officials, requests were submitted for 498 tickets before 330 allocations were finalised by mid-April.
Partha, however, opted not to apply through the BFF, anticipating a scenario of low supply and high demand. Instead, he once again turned to FIFA’s online portal, securing a ticket as early as September last year for the group-stage match between Curacao and Ivory Coast, scheduled for June 25 in Philadelphia. The reason Partha chose this match is that it is one of the lower-demand fixtures of the tournament, costing USD 150 (approx. Tk 18,000). His plan was simple: travel to the United States and try to purchase tickets for bigger matches from resellers, regardless of how expensive they became.
But those plans soon unravelled.
“All my excitement and anticipation turned into disappointment when I was rejected a visa for the USA. I have been to quite a few countries and I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that I was denied a visa for the World Cup, despite having secured a match ticket,” the 46-year-old said.
Unlike the Hayya Card system used during Qatar 2022, tickets for the 2026 World Cup do not function as entry permits. At best, they serve only as supporting documents in visa applications.
To make matters worse, the travel restrictions introduced by the Donald Trump administration have added fresh anxiety for supporters from several participating nations. Fans from Ivory Coast, Haiti, Iran and Senegal now face severe restrictions on travelling to the United States unless they already possess valid visas.
For many supporters around the world, the dream of attending football’s greatest spectacle increasingly appears dependent not only on luck in the ticket lottery, but also on wealth, nationality and access.
Image
Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney and FIFA’s President Gianni Infantino hold a novelty ticket to a World Cup match on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on October 10, 2025. Photo: REUTERS
FIFA is projected to earn around three billion dollars from ticket sales and hospitality during the 2026 World Cup -- more than triple the revenue generated from the previous tournament.
While the expanded format partly explains the increase, a major factor has been the introduction of dynamic pricing and an official resale market, both being used in a World Cup for the first time.
Dynamic pricing, common in North American sports and entertainment, allows ticket prices to fluctuate according to demand. FIFA’s official resale platform, meanwhile, permits supporters to sell tickets at prices of their choosing, with FIFA reportedly pocketing 30 per cent of every transaction.
The policy has sparked widespread backlash following reports of tickets for the final match being listed on resale sites for USD 2.3 million (approx. Tk 28 crore). This represents a staggering surge from the initial USD 8,680 (Tk 10.6 lakh) price point when sales launched last December. At that time, the lowest-category seats were priced at just USD 140 (Tk 17,000).
According to an analysis by The Guardian, even the cheapest seats for this World Cup are roughly six times more expensive than the average lowest-priced tickets at tournaments staged between 2006 and 2022.
Amid severe criticism, FIFA president Gianni Infantino recently defended the pricing model, saying: “We have to look at the market. We are in the market in which entertainment is the most developed in the world. So we have to apply market rates.”
Those are not the words football lovers would expect from the head of a non-profit governing body that claims to reinvest its revenues into the development of world football.
And it is not just ticket prices that have spiralled. Reports suggest transport costs around host cities have also surged dramatically. In some cases, round-trip travel to stadiums is expected to exceed 150 dollars -- more than 10 times the usual rates.
In its attempt to establish the World Cup as a premium entertainment product in the American market, FIFA appears to have embraced the harshest realities of the free-market economy, pushing ordinary supporters further away from the game they love.
Yet dissenting voices continue to grow louder. Ex-Liverpool CEO Peter Moore, a man deeply familiar with football’s commercial landscape, recently told Al Jazeera: “It’s the world’s game, but who is this World Cup for if the world can’t get in?”
Even Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola lamented the changing nature of football’s greatest event.
“Before I remember the World Cup -- years, years, years ago -- was like a celebration of the joy of football for the nations going there,” Guardiola said recently. “Everyone travelled all around the globe to see your country play. And it was affordable. Now, it’s so expensive.”
There are increasing fears that the demographic makeup of crowds -- particularly in the United States, where 78 of the tournament’s 104 matches will be held -- could become more corporate and far less socio-economically diverse.
For ordinary supporters like Partha, attending the World Cup has become an increasingly distant dream. This summer, he will watch football’s grandest spectacle from the comfort of his home, hoping that one day the tournament once again becomes accessible to the ordinary fans who give the game its soul.
