If you needed any more evidence that football has completely lost the plot when it comes to money, here it is. Tickets that England fans originally bought for Monday's last 16 World Cup game against Mexico are now being relisted on FIFA's own official resale portal for up to £26,000. Yes, you read that right. Twenty-six thousand pounds. For a football match.
Now, FIFA having an official resale portal sounds reasonable enough on paper. The idea is that it gives fans a safe place to sell tickets they can no longer use, without having to risk dodgy touts on street corners. Fair enough. But when the platform becomes a vehicle for people to flip tickets at hundreds of times their face value, you have to wonder whether anyone thought this through properly.
The really frustrating part is that these were tickets bought by genuine England supporters who presumably planned to be there cheering on the Three Lions. Life happens, plans change, and some of those people probably have perfectly legitimate reasons for selling. But others are clearly just cashing in, and FIFA's system is letting them do it openly and officially. That's a tough look for an organisation that loves to talk about making football accessible to fans.
For most ordinary supporters, £26,000 is not just expensive, it's completely laughable. That's a decent second-hand car, a year's wages for plenty of people, or roughly 1,300 pints at your local. The idea that a ticket to watch England play Mexico should cost anywhere near that amount is just absurd, and it should make everyone uncomfortable.
England fans have already had to fork out a fortune just to get to the tournament, between flights, hotels, and general living costs. The last thing the fanbase needs is to see fellow supporters treating match tickets like investment assets while real fans miss out entirely.
FIFA needs to take a long hard look at how their resale system actually works in practice, because right now it looks less like fan protection and more like a gift to profiteers.
Let me know your thoughts.