With the World Cup now all over, a clear message has been sent to FIFA by one Manchester City and England star
Marc Guehi became the first England player to publicly slate FIFA’s pricing for tickets at the World Cup. Guehi was at the heart of England’s run in the competition, which saw the Three Lions finish third.
The Manchester City defender started all but one match in the competition for the Three Lions. Aside from the opening 4-2 victory over Croatia, where he only played for three minutes, Guehi played every minute in the competition.
After English hearts were broken by the 2-1 loss to Argentina, Guehi and his teammates motivated themselves to beat France 6-4 in the bronze medal match. It was a bonkers affair and, arguably, the most exciting match of the World Cup.
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Yet, only 64,478 fans made it to the Miami Stadium, which was built to hold 71,000 supporters. As of 10am on Friday, the day before the England versus France clash, 7,000 tickets remained unsold, including 1,246 available on general sale, reports the Express.
This left tickets priced at £657 and £855 on general sale for the third-place play-off fixture. Having played his part in England’s victory over France, Guehi seized the moment to acknowledge the travelling supporters while also taking aim at FIFA over the cost of tickets for the match.
“It’s always hard, especially when you feel like you should have been in the final, so it was down to us to try to do the best that we could,” Guehi told reporters after the victory over Les Bleus.
“We owe it to fans back home for the support. We definitely owe it to everyone who came and watched, especially here in Miami. Because ticket pricing was rubbish. I don’t know what they were thinking, FIFA, to be honest. So at least they could enjoy a fairly entertaining game.”
England’s triumph over France secured them third place at the World Cup, leaving Spain and Argentina to contest the final on Sunday. Spain ultimately came out on top, clinching a 1-0 win against Argentina at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, courtesy of a goal from ex-City star Ferran Torres during extra time.
Before the final, many ticket prices for the showpiece at New York City’s MetLife Stadium surged to around $2,000 (£1,490). Last minute tickets were even ranging from $10,000 – $60,000 (£7,451 – £44,706), while on FIFA’s official ticket resale site, the cheapest tickets were just over $6,000 (£4,471), according to ESPN.
FIFA boss Gianni Infantino defended the prices before the competition started, insisting they were not unusual compared to other events in the US. He said: “We have to look at the market – we are in the market in which entertainment is the most developed in the world.
“So we have to apply market rates. In the US it is permitted to resell tickets as well. So if you were to sell tickets at the price which is too low, these tickets will be resold at a much higher price.
“And as a matter of fact, even though some people are saying that the ticket prices we have are high, they still end up on the resale market at an even higher price, more than double of our price.”
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