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Fans need the FA to speak up and take on Fifa’s rip-off World Cup
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- Fans need the FA to speak up and take on Fifa’s rip-off World Cup
Astronomical World Cup ticket prices might have been a huge issue for English fans this week , but you wouldn't have guessed that from the Football Association board meeting. Sources say they weren't even discussed. The guidance in one weekly missive instead just stated: "Fifa set the prices, we aren't involved, we don't get to approve them, and we only received them just prior to the announcement. We are aware that many of our fans and fan groups are unhappy with the pricing, and have asked us to relay their concerns to Fifa. We will do that."
To which an obvious response is, what about the FA's own concerns? What about its anger about this? What about the fact it had ample warning about these prices for months? Where's the lobbying? These are just pre-sales. There is time for pressure to work and Fifa to reverse this.
Fifa has been accused of a 'monumental betrayal', with the cheapest tickets for the World Cup final costing more than £3,000 (Getty)
Sources within the Football Supporters' Association [FSA] are already unnerved by the lack of public statement , and have warned the FA that "silence isn't an option".
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The English body is hardly alone in this, even if it does hold a unique power as one of the biggest federations in the world, with all the symbolic historic weight as the federation that set the sport's rules.
Many national associations privately declared themselves "shocked" by the prices on Thursday, but that hasn't yet translated into any action. The German federation, the DFB, was also embarrassingly meek as it spoke of how it "would have preferred more affordable tickets".
Stirring stuff from the federation that represents the most mobilised fans in the world.
At this point, it's hard not to wonder when action might actually come; what might finally prompt some sort of jolt in football's stagnant but self-servingly aloof status quo.
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This is, after all, only the latest Fifa misstep in a frankly astonishing two weeks, even by modern standards.
There was first the Cristiano Ronaldo decision , which raised questions over sporting integrity . There was then the video justifying Donald Trump's "peace prize" , which amounted to misuse of the sport for political propaganda, against Fifa's own statutes .
And now this, a grand rip-off of those who actually make the sport, in what Football Supporters Europe [FSE] has described as "a monumental betrayal" .
Infantino awarded Trump the inaugural Fifa 'peace prize' during the World Cup draw ceremony (AP)
But it's even more than that. As much as it seems a basic case of fans being ripped off, it goes much deeper, in two ways.
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One is that it sums up the problem with modern football in one simple issue. That is, the escalating tension over whether the game is just another commodity to be bought and sold with no concern for anything else, or if it's more important than that.
The World Cup itself is emphatic evidence of the latter. These are not just "entertainment events", like a Taylor Swift concert, that Fifa appears to have used as some kind of benchmark for the US market.
World Cup matches form some of the greatest days in countries' histories. They're special. Some fans wait their entire lives for this, spending tens of thousands following their teams in anticipation of this moment.
Many fans will be priced out of attending games with England supporters facing a £5,000 bill if they reach the final (Danny Lawson/PA Wire)
Scotland fans will be making their first appearance at a men's World Cup since 1998 (Jane Barlow/PA Wire)
This is what football culture is. This is what Fifa should be recognising.
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It is, instead, far from the first time that the Gianni Infantino leadership has displayed a complete misunderstanding of its own game.
That's even as the issues with these tickets should be so obvious.
Firstly, the shift away from standard pricing across all group matches – with the FSE describing "vague criteria" such as "perceived attractiveness" of a fixture – is new, and a deviation from every previous World Cup. The lowest category 4 tickets will also not be available to the hardcore fans through "Participating Members Association allocation", but instead will be subject to the open market and dynamic pricing. These choices are all the more surprising when a not-for-profit registered charity like Fifa was anticipating record revenue of $11bn even before this. They represent a deviation from the bid book for this very tournament in 2018, which was also based on the old system.
Inflation in the US has never exceeded 8 per cent in that time. Thursday's prices represent, on average, an inflation of 174 per cent on the 2018 projected prices. It's unjustifiable, leading to tickets that are five times more than the last World Cup. The FSA has calculated that England fans would have to pay a minimum of $7,020 (£5,248) to follow their team to the final, and that's before travel and accommodation. Supporters are also expected to pay all of this money in February, with money only returned if the team are knocked out – minus an admin fee. Disabled supporters who are normally allowed companions are meanwhile charged twice.
World Cup ticket prices were released after the draw, with national associations reacting in horror at the astronomical prices (AP)
Some arguments have been made about having to be guided by the local US market.
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Why?
Fifa was not guided by the local market in South Africa or Brazil , or any previous World Cup.
It must be stressed that all of this was a top-down initiative from the Infantino hierarchy, which sources say was "put together by a small circle", and that even the Fifa Council had no idea of.
But, if council members didn't know, what exactly are they doing to justify their $300,000 remuneration? Why aren't they speaking up now? This is as core a football issue as you can get. Debbie Hewitt, the FA chair, is better placed than anyone as Fifa vice-president.
But then, this is the second way that this story goes to a deeper level. It fully exposes the broken manner in which football power works , in a way that directly affects fans.
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The Infantino leadership will argue that all of this – right up to the calendar chaos caused by the Club World Cup – boosts Fifa revenue, which goes back to the member associations through the Fifa Forward programme. But this is the same programme criticised as a mere clientelistic, vote-returning mechanism, and that in a game already awash with money. So what it mostly does is strengthen Infantino's position.
And that in a system in which there is no second party. There is no outlet for dissent, a problem sharpened by the manner in which speaking out is often punished by political ostracisation or difficulty in securing major events – like World Cups. Years on, football is still governed by the same old politics. No wonder Fifa can say the voters are not complaining.
Sources within the FA will argue that they have a duty to try and bring tournaments to England, which is why the bid for the 2035 Women's World Cup requires political delicacy.
FA CEO Mark Bullingham would have a delicate role to play if the governing body decides to challenge Fifa (John Walton/PA Wire)
But England are the only bidders.
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What's more, the association has even more of a duty to its support base, and how they experience the game.
The FA needs to actually speak up, to show fans it has their back.
For the moment, Fifa's latest missives indicate it's not for changing. A news release on Friday night was crowing about five million registrations, but most of those were before the announcement of these prices.
That can change, too. Football doesn't just need to accept this ridiculous "supply and demand" rationale, as if it's only subject to the market rather than its own decisions. There is actually time for something to be done.
It would be good if, for once, senior football figures tried that.
