Australian fans miss out on World Cup tickets as prices skyrocket

Australian fans are crying foul after missing out on tickets to the FIFA World Cup finals.

Fans found out over the weekend whether their application in FIFA's third round ballot were successful or otherwise.

Many fans also tried to buy tickets through Football Australia's FA+ program, which cost $99 to join but did not guarantee tickets.

"There are quite a number of people that have missed out, either not got the amount of tickets that they'd hoped to get … or just not getting any tickets," said Patrick Clancy, the chair of Football Supporters Australia.

"It's bitterly disappointing for those people."

Sydney exercise physiologist Steven Kapellos is one of them.

The life-long football player and Socceroos fan had been planning a trip of a lifetime to watch World Cup matches in Mexico, Canada and the USA this June and July.

He applied for tickets for six games — including all three Socceroos matches against a European qualifier in Vancouver, the USA in Seattle and Paraguay in San Francisco — as well as three knockout games.

But this week he discovered he'd only secured tickets for the Socceroos versus Paraguay match.

"I got a ticket to the World Cup, which is something I've always wanted to experience in my lifetime," Kapellos said.

"But then it's also like, well, where do I go from here? Do I bother planning a whole trip to go over for one game?"

His experience isn't unique.

In January, FIFA boasted it had received more than half a billion applications during the recent Random Selection Draw phase of ticket sales.

Which will be little comfort to those that failed to get a ticket.

"There are quite a number of people that have missed out," said Patrick Clancy, the chair of advocacy group Football Supporters Australia.

"(They've) either not got the amount of tickets that they'd hoped to get, not been able to get the amount of games that they'd hoped to get, or just not getting any tickets at all through the FIFA allocations or the FA+ allocation.

"It's bitterly disappointing for those people. The chance of buying a resold ticket is going to be really hard work; they are terribly expensive."

The only option for fans like Kapellos who have missed out is to look for tickets on FIFA's owns reselling platform, Marketplace, where prices are skyrocketing.

Fans are seeing ticket prices rise on an almost daily basis with some costing up to ten times the original sale price.

For example, a Category 1 (of 4) ticket to the Australia vs USA game in Seattle on June 19 was originally $US605 ($855).

On the Marketplace platform on Wednesday the cheapest Category 1 ticket was going for $US3,922.00 ($5,545).

FIFA is also charging ticket buyers a fee of 15 per cent which means the total cost of the ticket would be $US4,510 ($6,376).

A Category 3 ticket has gone from $US225 to $US1,999 and with the 15 per cent fee is now costing $US2,299 ($3,250).

The worst ticket — Category 4 — which was originally priced at $US90 is now selling on the Marketplace website for a staggering $US1,600 which amounts to $2,262 when the FIFA fee is added on.

FIFA's total take is 30 per cent for resold tickets in addition to the commission it received on the original purchase price.

"FIFA is no friend of the fan and the ticket prices, the commission that they're placing on resale of tickets just demonstrates that," Clancy said.

"They just are constantly wanting to fill their pockets."

Unlike previous World Cups, FIFA has decided not to set a cap on prices resulting in some asking for tens of thousands of dollars for a single ticket.

At the extreme end, Category 1 tickets for the World Cup Final in New Jersey are being offered for $US264,000 ($372,072), including FIFA's 15 per cent fee.

Clancy said the cost of tickets plus travel and accommodation has stumped many fans.

"At this stage, people are probably not going to go if they can't get any tickets," he said.

"And then there's a few other people who are just saying 'look, we're just going to have to now look at all options and decide whether we go or not.'

"I will say that so many Australian football fans are so passionate that they won't let anything get in the way.

"They see this as a huge four year event and they'll go there wherever it is and however they get there and they'll empty their pockets just so that they can attend. But it's getting harder and harder."

Some fans have been luckier.

Kevin Pollard is running a tour to this year's World Cup for the travel company Travelrite.

He said he made sure his clients applied for four tickets for every Socceroos game so that spare tickets could be distributed to those who weren't successful.

"We've got a lot of spares, we've got about 30 or 40 spares per game," Pollard said.

"We've got a large amount of tickets for the Vancouver and the San Francisco games, not as many for the America game in Seattle, but we've got access to get those tickets."

Pollard said he was expecting between 70 and 80 people would sign up for his tour and all would be able to get tickets.

Kapellos was one of the 5,823 Socceroos fans who spent $99 to sign up for Football Australia's FA+ membership program, which promised access to another pool of tickets granted to each federation that qualified for the World Cup.

The memberships did not guarantee tickets but did offer a 15 per cent discount to all Socceroos and Matildas matches as well as a $20 merchandise voucher and invitations to FA events and training sessions.

FA's allocation was 28,990 tickets for all Socceroos matches and each potential knockout game, including the final.

FA said it received 8,606 applications for tickets to the Socceroos' three pool matches and 5,864 applications were successful and that it has access to another tranche of 1,548 "Supporter Value Tier" tickets for the Socceroos three pool matches.

Those tickets would cost $US60 ($84).

An FA spokesperson said it wasn't sure when applicants would find out if they were successful.

Clancy said there are some people who feel they should get a refund on their $99 membership fee after they failed to get tickets.

"There's been concerns that those people that have loyally supported Australian football teams for many, many years have gone to multiple World Cups, have now missed out," Clancy said.

"People have paid (the $99 membership fee) and now missed out on World Cup tickets. So that's pretty disappointing for those people.

"There's very little transparency across some of these processes, and that really annoys people."

Clancy said his association had written to FA multiple times about various World Cup ticketing issues and had not received a response until recently.

"We have finally got a meeting sorted with the Football Australia representative later next week to go through all manner of issues, including these matters," Clancy said.

"But we're pretty disappointed with the lack of responses…their lack of consultation on putting in place this money-making $99 fee and also concern about how people can access the cheaper tickets through the World Cup allocation processes," he said.

ABC Sport asked Football Australia to comment on accusations the FA+ membership didn't favour loyal fans and that the process lacked transparency.

"Consideration was given to recognising loyal Australian football supporters but a system needed to be developed to accurately measure this," FA said in a statement. 

"Given the anticipated and unprecedented demand for tickets to the World Cup, Football Australia considered a ballot to be the fairest means of provided access."