FIFA president Gianni Infantino made a jibe at British football fans while defending the upcoming World Cup and its ticket prices.
There has been widespread criticism from fans groups over FIFA’s ticket prices for the tournament in the USA, Canada and Mexico.
But Infantino said there was similar “noise” around the Qatar World Cup – and then made his joke.
“When the ball started rolling and the magic started we had virtually no incidents,” he said at the World Economic Forum.
US President Donald Trump and FIFA chief Gianni Infantino with the World Cup trophy at the Oval Office of the White House
“For the first time in history also, no Brit was arrested during a World Cup. Imagine! This is something really, really special.”
“So it was a celebration, it was a party, and the next one in the United States, Canada and Mexico will be exactly the same.
“People want occasions to meet, to come together, to spend time, to celebrate, and this is what we try to give them.”
England and Wales were the only British teams to qualify for the World Cup in Qatar. However, Infantino’s flippant remark about British fans at the World Cup has proven to be incorrect.
That is because Qatar 2022 was not the first World Cup that saw no British arrests in the host country. The 2010 World Cup in South Africa also saw no British fans apprehended by police.
On top of that, England fan behaviour was described as “impeccable” in Qatar, and despite several arrests in Germany 2006, many of them were “preventative arrests” and England fan behaviour was praised by the UK police chief in Germany at the time.
Responding to Mr Infantino, The Football Supporters Association said: “While we’ve got Mr Infantino’s attention, we’d like to point out that rather than making cheap jokes about our fans, he should concentrate on making cheap tickets.”
How much will tickets cost at the FIFA World Cup?
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Kaveh Solhekol gives the latest update on ticket pricing for next summer’s football World Cup
FIFA was forced into a sudden departure from its initial pricing structure, which represented an increase across the board of almost 500 per cent compared to Qatar 2022.
Under that structure, the cheapest ticket available to either England or Scotland fans for the tournament would have cost £134, for Scotland’s opening group game with Haiti, while England vs Croatia and Scotland vs Brazil would set fans back a minimum of £198.
It led to an outcry from a number of national fan groups and accusations of a “betrayal” of supporters,
As a result, football’s governing body’s major climbdown involved announcing a small number of fans will be able to pay just £45 ($60) for each game, including the final.
The £45 tier will only be available through national federations, ensuring they end up in the hands of genuine supporters – and still only represents around 10 per cent of the allocation each association receives, and less than one per cent of overall capacity for each game.
Fan groups are still demanding FIFA does more to make World Cup tickets affordable – especially as the world governing body is on course to make almost £10bn in revenue between 2023 and 2026.
Many fans are also feeling hard done by because they applied for more expensive tickets before FIFA announced that £45 would be available.
