Scotland’s painful wait for an appearance at the World Cup will come to an end in the early hours of Saturday morning. Their first match on football’s biggest stage will take place at 2am UK time against Haiti in Boston.
Thousands upon thousands of Scots have flocked to the States to cheer the team on, with kilts, bagpipes and tartan having taken over the American city. However, Scotland’s return to the World Cup has been marred by the controversies surrounding ticket prices at the tournament.
But any Scotland fans hoping for a cheap ticket on the day of the match will likely be left disappointed, given resale sites have them listed for over £22,000. The site in question is Seat Pick, with the ticket priced at £22,555 – over half of the average salary in Scotland.
The cheapest ticket currently listed on the site is priced at £508, with the majority up for between £600 and £1,000.
The prices are astonishing and they speak volumes about the policy FIFA have implemented at this summer’s World Cup. However, when quizzed about the prices, FIFA president Gianni Infantino doubled down on the decision and defended it by comparing the World Cup tickets to the cost of other major US sporting events.
He remarked: “If you sell it at a lower price point, in this particular market it would have gone, which is perfectly legal in this country … in secondary markets at much, much, much higher prices and where would the money go then? Well, to those who organise secondary markets or black market activities and not to football.
“When it comes to these legal investigations or complaints that were made in some states in the U.S. we are very relaxed about it because before starting to sell 6 and a half or 7 million tickets we check what we do with the best lawyers, with the best experts. If we do something wrong, then probably everyone selling tickets in North America is doing something wrong, as well.”
Before adding: “The starting price at $60 is the lowest entry price of any of the American sports in the playoff phases. If you sell it at a lower price point, it would have gone on secondary markets at much higher prices. Every dollar that comes in goes back to the development of football.”
Following the opening match against Haiti, Scotland will take on Morocco before ending their group stage against record champions Brazil. Scotland have never made it out of the group at a World Cup and have a great chance to do so this year, given eight of the best 12 third-place finishers will progress.