Up to 15,000 England fans are expected in Dallas for the Three Lions’ 2026 World Cup opener against Croatia, although many supporters are facing extremely high ticket prices.
England will begin their World Cup campaign at Dallas Stadium on Wednesday, six days after the tournament started.
The official England Supporters’ Travel Club has sold its entire allocation of 4,022 tickets. However, the total number of England supporters attending the match remains uncertain because many will travel independently or already live in the United States.
The United Kingdom Football Policing Unit told BBC Sport that between 12,000 and 15,000 England fans are expected at each group-stage match.
It also revealed that supporters from England have purchased 89,000 tickets covering all 104 World Cup matches. That figure does not include fans travelling to the United States without match tickets.
England Fans Face Expensive World Cup Tickets
Ticket prices for the 2026 World Cup have been criticised since they went on sale to England Supporters’ Travel Club members in December.
For England’s opening match against Croatia, official tickets were initially available for £198, £373 and £523.
Supporters who missed out on the limited allocation have been searching FIFA’s official resale platform, which adds a 15% fee to the price paid by the buyer.
Resale tickets for England’s World Cup group matches have remained limited because the Three Lions are among the tournament’s most in-demand teams.
On Friday, 984 tickets were listed for the Croatia match. By Tuesday, that number had fallen to 293.
The cheapest category-one resale ticket remained at around £1,310. Meanwhile, prices in the lower categories increased.
A category-two ticket available for £874 in April had risen to £1,254 by Tuesday. A category-three ticket that cost £682 two months earlier was listed at £1,311.
England Supporters’ Tickets Appear on FIFA Resale Site
Some tickets apparently sold to England Supporters’ Travel Club members also appeared on FIFA’s resale platform at much higher prices.
These were listed under the “supporter standard” and “supporter premier” categories, which were allocated to national football associations.
One supporter-standard ticket had an asking price of £3,192. With FIFA’s additional fee, the total cost reached £3,671—almost 10 times the original £380 purchase price.
Another was listed for £1,178, taking the total to £1,355 after the resale fee.
Two supporter-premier tickets also appeared. One was listed at £1,898, or £2,183 including FIFA’s fee, compared with its £523 face value. Another was listed for £100 more.
It remains unclear whether these tickets were sold at the requested prices or removed from the platform.
To prevent supporters from reselling the cheapest £45 tickets, the Football Association delayed releasing them to digital wallets until Monday evening. BBC Sport had not seen any of these “supporter entry” tickets listed for resale.
England Fans Speak About Rising World Cup Costs
Many England supporters arrived in Dallas several days before the Croatia match, but the cost of tickets, flights and accommodation prevented others from travelling.
One supporter, Michael, said his group paid around £850 per ticket.
“There’s eight of us that are all together and we paid about £850 for a ticket each,” he said. “That is a lot of money, you can get a season ticket for that.”
He also raised concerns about reports of expensive food and drinks inside the stadiums.
“It does feel like you are getting gouged. But it’s the World Cup,” Michael added.
“I just hope when it comes to 2030 we come back to normality, and things are a bit more sensible.”
Guy and James travelled from Newcastle without tickets after their original tickets fell through and their hotel reservation was cancelled.
“We’ve not got tickets but obviously we were still coming out,” James said. “We’ll go to fan zones, bars, and be with England fans.”
Guy said they would consider paying between £400 and £500 for tickets, although he described their chances of finding them as “slim to none”.
Another supporter, Ian, questioned how many England fans would ultimately attend the match.
“It’s a shame because it’s the people’s game and I feel like 80 to 90% of people are priced out of the games,” he said.
“I really hope it doesn’t set a precedent going forward.”
