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A pair of New Jersey lawmakers in Congress are calling out FIFA, accusing the international soccer governing body of unfair ticket-pricing practices ahead of the upcoming World Cup.
U.S. Reps. Frank Pallone, D-6th Dist., and Nellie Pou, D-9th Dist., each released a statement Friday criticizing FIFA’s ticketing structure as misleading and overly expensive.
FIFA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“With the World Cup just 35 days away, FIFA is jacking up prices, creating artificial scarcity, and hitting fans with huge resale fees while tickets mysteriously keep reappearing after matches are called ‘sold out,’” Pallone said.
World Cup organizers have faced mounting criticism in recent weeks over ticket costs. Some tickets have been listed for as high as $2.3 million on the official resale site, while midfield seats are averaging about $16,000, according to TicketData.com, a price tracking site.
Ticket resale prices dipped slightly this week, falling up to 29% in some categories, but costs remain far out of reach for many fans.
The backlash has grown loud enough to draw comments from top figures in the sport. Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola, whose club competes in England’s Premier League, recently said ticket prices have become “so expensive” and emphasized that “football is for the fans.”
Pou said hosting the World Cup would bring economic and cultural benefits to New Jersey but warned that fans could suffer under FIFA’s pricing practices.
“Hosting the World Cup is an enormous honor for our country, bringing fans from across the nation and around the world to American soil,” she said. “Yet, FIFA’s opaque ticketing tactics are misleading fans and visitors. This isn’t right.”
NJ.com staff writers Larry Higgs and Joey Chandler contributed to this report.
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