Soccer enthusiasts typically travel across the globe to witness their national teams battle on the world’s biggest sporting platform, the World Cup. They gather in bars and supporter zones, chanting songs and discussing championship predictions.
However, this year presents a different scenario for devoted followers, who claim tournament organizers have created the most unwelcoming World Cup atmosphere they’ve encountered. High ticket costs, expensive intercity transportation, and worries about U.S. entry procedures have led some to remain in their home countries.
Mike Wilson, an IT worker based in London, has attended four World Cups during the last two decades. This summer, he plans to stay in Europe and view portions of the competition from a beach in Portugal.
Emiliano Becerra, an Argentine physician, typically supports his team throughout each elimination phase. This tournament, he’ll watch two initial games before returning home.
Peter Bergakker, a Dutch-born finance manager, traveled to South Africa to witness the Netherlands compete in the 2010 World Cup championship match. However, regardless of how far the “Oranje” progress this summer, he stated he won’t journey to the U.S.
The precise number of supporters choosing to stay away remains unknown, but concerning indicators exist.
Hotel reservations have been weaker than anticipated in numerous U.S. host cities. Additionally, the president of the travel agency association in soccer-enthusiastic Uruguay reported organizing tour packages for approximately 3,000 supporters, substantially fewer than those who attended recent World Cups.
The demographic of supporters capable of traveling and taking extended time off work to support their teams during the World Cup naturally tends toward the affluent. However, past tournaments remained within reach for enthusiasts who, in many instances, would save for years to afford their flights and game tickets.
Four years earlier, lower-category Category 3 tickets for group stage games cost $69. This year, FIFA has sold them for up to $265.
The previous two tournaments in Russia and Qatar provided match attendees with complimentary transportation between host cities, although many games were significantly closer than the extensive area encompassed by the 16 stadiums hosting matches throughout the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
While supporters at those events were prohibited by FIFA from selling their tickets on the official resale platform above face value, the sports governing organization has adopted a different strategy this time — permitting fans to resell tickets at any price they choose, with FIFA collecting 30% in fees during the process. FIFA did not respond to a comment request Thursday but has previously justified ticket prices as reflecting “record-breaking” demand.
Tomonori Akutsu, who resides outside Tokyo, said if he had understood how costly this tournament would be when he began planning, he might have reconsidered attending his sixth consecutive World Cup.
Without doubt, he believes, the U.S. has been the poorest host, and tournament organizers have shown a “complete lack of hospitality in every aspect,” referencing elements like ticket prices, an inflated resale market, expensive hotel rates and fan festivals that charge admission.
“Simply, my impression is ‘this is America,’ the ultimate capitalism,” Akutsu said.
Becerra, from Argentina, paid $1,100 to watch Argentina defeat France in the 2022 final in Qatar. For the previous three World Cups, he supported Argentina through the knockout phases.
Not this time.
This year, he paid even more — $1,200 — for a resale ticket to watch Argentina’s game against low-ranked Jordan in Dallas.
“It’s absolutely crazy – it’s just a group stage match,” said Becerra, a 64-year-old ophthalmologist who lives in Neuquén, in northern Patagonia.
Becerra will return home before the knockout stage starts. The prices, he said, are “just not possible for me.”
Wilson, the IT specialist from England, said he and his friends chose to skip this summer’s tournament because they couldn’t justify paying the prices they were seeing.
Wilson had never paid more than $200 for any World Cup match, a price that, on the resale market, barely purchases a nosebleed seat at a group stage match between two obscure teams. Instead, he and his friends have reserved a Portugal vacation.
For Wilson, the World Cup is more about the atmosphere than the matches.
“That’s the great thing about these tournaments: You’re sitting at a hostel, chatting with U.S. fans, and then you go to a bar up the road and there are loads of Chileans who have just taken over the place,” Wilson said, recalling a memorable night in Johannesburg in 2010. “It’s stuff like that which makes the World Cup. But now they’ve just priced everyone out.”
Mark Doidge, a sociologist at England’s Loughborough University, said World Cups have long been characterized by their traveling supporters, pointing to Colombia’s famous “Birdman” and the sea of St. George’s crosses at every England match. Rising costs, he said, risk losing exactly those fans.
“Most of those buying expensive tickets are not those passionate fans, but wealthy people paying for an experience,” he said.
There is at least one group of supporters that appears determined to come regardless of the cost: the Scots, who are eager to see their team compete in their first World Cup in 28 years.
Campbell Lewis and his friends began booking refundable accommodations across the U.S. as soon as Scotland qualified last year before prices rose.
With tens of thousands of Scottish fans expected to attend, tickets for their team’s matches have proven harder to obtain.
But after prices began to drop in recent weeks, Lewis bought two tickets for Scotland’s second match for him and his 10-year-old son. He and his friends are still waiting until the final days to get tickets to the team’s opener against Haiti, though. As of Thursday, the cheapest resale ticket for that match outside Boston exceeded $600.
“For a lot of Scottish people of my generation, this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing,” he said. “We were all kids the last time we qualified. And even though the prices have gotten out of hand, there’s just this determination that we want to go.”
U.S. entry requirements may also be limiting international visitors.
Unlike Russia in 2018, which waived visa requirements for ticketholders, and Qatar in 2022, which streamlined entry for fans, many traveling to the U.S. still face strict visa requirements. Until the U.S. reversed course last month, ticket-holding fans from Algeria, Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Tunisia were even going to have to pay as much as $15,000 in bonds to enter the country.
Carlos Pera, president of Uruguay’s travel agency association, recently told Uruguay’s Subrayado that U.S. visa requirements were among the reasons fewer Uruguayans are making the trip this year.
U.S. officials have pushed back on concerns about visitors encountering an unwelcome environment, and the White House’s World Cup task force has highlighted efforts to prioritize visa interviews for fans with tickets. Andrew Giuliani, who leads the task force, dismissed concerns Thursday that traditional traveling supporters may be staying away.
“We want superfans and first-time visitors alike to know: America welcomes you to what will be the greatest World Cup yet,” he said in a statement.
For some fans, however, the concern goes beyond visas and cost.
Bergakker, a 48-year-old Dutch financial controller who lives near Heidelberg, Germany, said President Donald Trump’s “hostile” approach toward European allies has changed his view of traveling to the U.S.
Bergakker has attended two World Cups and four European Championships and said he is extremely susceptible to “Oranjekoorts” — the orange fever that grips Dutch fans as a tournament progresses.
A deep Netherlands run usually would be all it takes to get him on a plane, no matter the price of tickets. But Bergakker said he worries his criticism of Trump on social media could lead to problems at the border, a concern the White House rejected. A spokesperson said Thursday that a Customs and Border Protection proposal to scrutinize World Cup visitors’ social media accounts was never enacted.
Still, Bergakker said that as long as Trump is president, “this Oranje fan won’t be visiting.”
