Fifa may come under pressure to drop its lucrative World Cup ticket resale strategy following law changes in Canada, experts have warned. The Canadian province of Ontario – whose capital Toronto will host matches – passed laws in its recent budget banning the resale of tickets for above their initial value, forcing Fifa to take action on its global resale platform where single seats at next month’s World Cup have hit $11m.
Fifa's Ticket Sales Under Fire
Football’s global governing body has faced criticism for its approach to ticket sales, with claims that the World Cup was sold out contradicted by Fifa releasing tickets in recent weeks. Katrina Anderson, principal associate at Mills & Reeve, told City AM: “Ontario’s Putting Fans First Act is a high-profile example of a regional government using consumer protection law to set the terms of engagement. This shares close parallels with the UK government’s move to make it illegal to resell tickets above their original cost and to put enforcement duties on resale platforms themselves. Interestingly, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has stated that these changes form part of a broader strategy to simplify the process for the UK to bid for, secure, and successfully deliver large-scale events. Taken together, it’s clear that ticket resale has become a mainstream consumer protection issue globally, with major sporting events a key driving force. For organisers of these events, a single global resale policy is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain and consumer law is set to become a more prominent factor in event delivery planning.”
World Cup Ticket Chaos
Data collated by SeatPick, shared with City AM, reveals that there are more than 885,000 tickets remaining for the World Cup – which is being staged across Canada, the United States and Mexico – at an average price of over £975. Nearly 30,000 tickets are available for games featuring England, while 28,500 are available for matches involving Scotland. Some tickets for both teams could cost fans £70,000 apiece. This follows City AM’s earlier revelation that one ticket to watch Scotland take on Brazil in Miami was listed on the official resale platform for $11.5m. The ticket price saga comes amid issues over hotels, security and cyber threats for what will be the biggest ever Fifa World Cup.
