FIFA Ticket Pricing Amplifies Neoliberalism’s Takedown Of World Soccer

LUSAIL CITY, QATAR - DECEMBER 18: A fan holds a banner asking for a ticket outside the stadium prior to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Final match between Argentina and France at Lusail Stadium on December 18, 2022 in Lusail City, Qatar. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images) Getty Images At this summer’s World Cup, football’s global governing body – the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) – will be using dynamic ticket pricing , the first time it has used this strategy at the planet’s biggest soccer tournament. Dynamic ticketing involves prices fluctuating in real-time based on market demand, supply, and other external factors.

Instead of a centrally set, fixed price, the cost of a seat changes - sometimes by the hour – in response to what people are willing to pay at that exact moment. It is enabled by digital technology which gathers, processes and then applies the outcomes of data trends meaning that market forces rather than FIFA set ticket prices. Don’t be surprised to see fans at the tournament glued to their mobile phones as they wait for ticket prices to dip, prompting an online scramble to gain entry to a much coveted national team game.

Ticket prices driving FIFA revenues FIFA and its president - Gianni Infantino - see dynamic ticket pricing as an important reform that will generate increased revenues for world football. Indeed, it is believed that thirty percent from each ticket sale will go directly to the governing body, the overall outcome of which may see FIFA generating almost $3 billion from this source alone. There is also an argument that dynamic ticketing prevents scalpers (known in the U.

K. as touts) from being able to operate a secondary market for match tickets, though the counter argument to this is that bots and speculators will take their place. The bigger current outcry is, however, that FIFA’s new ticketing regime is driving prices upwards making tickets unaffordable for many fans, transforming the world’s most important soccer tournament into a two-tier, gentrified commodity .