England football fans have had to wait longer than most other supporters to see their team begin its campaign at the 2026 World Cup finals. The Three Lions kick off on Wednesday against Croatia at AT&T Stadium in Dallas, United States, with between 12,000 and 15,000 English supporters expected to attend each group-stage match.
The BBC's football policing unit said English fans had purchased 89,000 tickets covering all 104 matches in the tournament, without a specific per-match breakdown. The official England Supporters Travel Club sold its full allocation of 4,022 tickets, while the number of fans travelling independently or living abroad as expatriates remains unknown. The 2006 World Cup in Germany saw a historical peak of 350,000 English supporters in attendance, compared with just 4,000 who travelled to Qatar four years ago.
World Cup ticket prices have generated widespread controversy from the outset. English fans described them as a "betrayal" when they went on sale to Travel Club members in December. While group-stage tickets at the Qatar World Cup were priced at £68.50, £164.50 and £219, prices for the Croatia match rose to £198, £373 and £523, prompting fans to turn to FIFA's official resale platform, which charges an additional 15% fee.
High demand has led to a sharp drop in supply and a surge in resale prices. Available tickets for the Croatia match fell from 984 on Friday to just 293 by Tuesday. The cheapest Category 1 ticket settled at £1,310, while a Category 2 ticket jumped from £874 in April to £1,254 on Tuesday, and a Category 3 ticket rose from £682 two months ago to £1,311.
Tickets allocated to national associations appeared on FIFA's resale platform at several times their face value, with one standard supporter ticket listed at £3,192 — rising to £3,671 after fees — equivalent to 10 times its original price of £380.
Another ticket was listed at £1,178. Premium-category tickets also appeared at £1,898, four times their face value of £523. However, the Football Association's decision to withhold delivery of cheaper £45 tickets to mobile phones until Monday evening successfully prevented those tickets from being resold.
Several fans in Dallas expressed frustration at the steep costs of attending the World Cup. One supporter said he and his friends paid £850 per ticket — the equivalent of a full season ticket — adding that the high costs of flights, accommodation, food and drinks inside stadiums had deterred many from making the trip.
Other fans said they had travelled to support the team in fan zones and bars despite having their hotel bookings cancelled and failing to secure match tickets, as the high prices had shut out a broad section of supporters.