Peter Moore accuses FIFA of undermining the spirit of the World Cup through extortionate ticket prices and greed.

If the 23rd edition of the FIFA World Cup has become prohibitively expensive – with tickets fetching prices at more than $2m for the final – blame dynamic pricing, along with greed, says longtime gaming and sports executive Peter Moore.

“Dynamic pricing doesn’t belong in the World Cup and football,” Moore told Al Jazeera in a recent interview from his home in Santa Barbara, California.

“It works with music, but for the World Cup, there are hundreds of thousands of people booking trips in advance. They’re asking themselves, ‘Do we want to visit and pay $2,000 for a third-tier game, Saudi Arabia versus whomever?’ And FIFA taking a 30 percent cut of dynamic pricing is outrageous”.

The 71-year-old former chief executive of Liverpool FC from 2017-20 is calling out FIFA President, Gianni Infantino, in interviews and on social media.

“Gianni Infantino misread the situation and thought he could get away with it,” Moore said.

“Now, tickets are in the hands of bots and speculators, who don’t intend to go to games. They are harvesting tickets and hoping they can sell them in the next six to eight weeks, and I don’t see that happening.”

He added: “I just hope enough people are there to add to the atmosphere of the game”.

Certainly, there’s a gloomy feeling hanging over this World Cup – at some US venues, anyway; from high prices for tickets and transportation, to the luck of the draw on getting a visa (hopefully you haven’t visited Cuba lately).

When you arrive, there’s the spectre of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents targeting fans. Finally, you get through the turnstiles and you could be greeted by lots of empty seats.

How FIFA is rolling things out also raises questions about who the World Cup is for.

The demographic could be more corporate, less diverse socio-economically, with fewer authentic fans attending than in previous tournaments.

Under travel bans imposed by Trump in an executive order, fans from four participating countries – Ivory Coast, Haiti, Iran and Senegal – cannot enter the country unless they already have valid visas.

“It’s the world’s game, but who is this World Cup for if the world can’t get in?” Moore said.

“FIFA is taking advantage of the unique commercial opportunities in the US, dynamic pricing and the secondary market being legal here, to make money – Infantino has said [he expects FIFA revenues from the World Cup to exceed] $11bn. Why not make it more reasonable and accessible and make, maybe, $8bn?

“FIFA is a nonprofit, built to serve players and fans of the world. That’s its remit, not to be like a commercial organisation and maximise the opportunity to make as much money as possible.”

FIFA expects to gross $3bn on ticketing and hospitality sales alone.

Infantino has defended high ‌‌ticket prices, saying ⁠⁠that ⁠⁠the tournament held every four years is FIFA’s only source of income and that it reinvests the revenue to develop football in all 211 member nations.

MLS commissioner Don Garber recently called FIFA’s dynamic pricing policy “a good idea”, adding that Infantino compared the World Cup to “dozens and dozens” of NFL Super Bowls, which feature some dynamic ticketing. And, Garber added, US fans are accustomed to paying high prices for “premium” events.

But the Super Bowl’s appeal is based on the contest being held once a year, not dozens of times. One way to devalue the Super Bowl would be to schedule several of them a year.

As for supporters from the other 47 countries taking part? They thought they were going to a World Cup, not a Super Bowl. And they are probably not used to dynamic pricing or legal profiting from ticket resales.

In the US, though, above-value ticket resale is legal, and FIFA being involved in reselling “changes everything,” Moore noted. “It means: tickets are no longer just for fans. They’re tradable assets.” Which brings in speculators, who conduct business “like traders, not supporters”.

Maybe it was inevitable that the spirit of the World Cup would be hijacked by savage capitalism. But it doesn’t seem everyone is ready for that, just yet. The World Cup is not only a sporting competition, but a universal gathering. Or so we thought. Perhaps it is just another “premium event”, like so many Taylor Swift concerts – but with worse dance moves.

Welcome then to the first soulless World Cup?

“It’s dystopian, and it’s an existential threat to the game,” Moore said, referring to both the ticketing situation and broader problems of the World Cup.

“Ultimately, is this going to be the first of every World Cup where FIFA maximises profit, rather than allow as many as possible to come and support their country?”

Moore said he is reluctant to attend the World Cup, though he could zip down the Pacific Coast Highway to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.

“For me, I look every day, on StubHub, SeatGeek, TicketMaster,” Moore said. “I’m used to it with live music. We can stand outside Allegiant [Stadium, in Las Vegas] and watch our phones for when ticket prices go down, when touts need to unload tickets for the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Shakira. But the international fan can’t do that for the World Cup, fly to America and book hotels, and hope prices will go down”.

If you are planning on being there, Moore advises checking the resale market close to game times.

“I’d just watch, and as the weeks go on, if tickets aren’t moving, the secondary market will come down,” Moore said.

“But to a reasonable price? I don’t know. It’s the regular fans that create the excitement at the World Cup, from Brazil, Colombia, Africa. How are they going to afford to travel and come to games when it’s $1,000, $2,000, $3,000 [per ticket]. Who’s got that kind of money?”

For the fans who do get through the turnstiles, maybe the power of football will overcome everything and they’ll experience what we think of as the eternal World Cup vibe. But a part of them might also feel like they just got fleeced by FIFA.

📰 மூல செய்தி (Source): https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2026/4/27/fifa-world-cup-2026-dynamic-pricing-match-tickets-peter-moore?traffic_source=rss

Football’s global governing body promises to increase the funding for the tournament to help cover participation costs.

FIFA says it is ‌‌in discussions with national football associations to increase prize money for all ⁠⁠48 teams participating ⁠⁠in the World Cup.

In response to requests by ‌‌European teams to increase prize money and to assist with costs ⁠⁠associated with ⁠⁠their participation this summer in the World Cup, the world governing body is set to fulfil ⁠ ⁠those wishes, it said on Sunday.

The proposal must be approved at Tuesday’s FIFA Council meeting, being held before the 76th FIFA Congress in Vancouver, Canada.

FIFA announced in December a record World Cup prize fund of $727m, with the winning team taking home $50m and each team receiving ⁠⁠at least $10.5m. Since that December announcement, FIFA ⁠⁠and national associations have engaged in talks and aim to resolve the issue.

UEFA, European football’s governing body, contacted FIFA after ‌‌hearing from several of its member associations regarding the costs of participating in the World Cup, including travel, operations and taxes, particularly in the United States. Canada and Mexico are the other host countries.

FIFA said the prize money on offer is set to increase, with the world governing body projected to surpass $11bn in revenue in the current ‌‌four-year cycle of 2023 to 2026.

“FIFA can confirm it is in discussions with associations around the world to increase available revenues,” a FIFA spokesperson told the Reuters news agency.

“This includes a proposed increase of financial contributions to all qualified teams for the FIFA World Cup 2026 and of development funding available to all 211 member associations.

“The FIFA World Cup 2026 will be groundbreaking in terms of its ⁠⁠financial contribution to the global football community, and FIFA ⁠⁠is proud to be in its strongest ever financial position to benefit the global game through its FIFA Forward programme.”

The biggest slice of FIFA’s initial funding package for the North American showpiece – $655m – ⁠⁠was to be performance-based payments to the 48 participating nations.

Additionally, each qualified nation would be entitled to $1.5m to cover preparation costs.

FIFA’s 2025 annual report said ‌‌93 percent of its total budgeted revenue had already been contracted by the end of 2025, thanks to the success of the inaugural 32-team Club World Cup held ‌‌in ‌‌the US last year.

The World Cup will run from June 11 to July 19.

📰 மூல செய்தி (Source): https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2026/4/27/world-cup-2026-prize-money-fees-to-be-increased-for-all-teams-fifa?traffic_source=rss

In Somalia, displaced communities face starvation as humanitarian funds decrease, leaving them without assistance or hope.

Across Somalia, communities are suffering through a deepening hunger crisis, driven from their homes by drought and left waiting for critical humanitarian assistance that has not arrived.

September’s failed Deyr rains mark the latest blow in a relentless climate crisis, destroying livelihoods, killing livestock, and forcing another year of harvest failure.

More than 500,000 people have been displaced so far this year – more than 90 percent of them by drought – in addition to the 3.3 million Somalis already uprooted.

Displaced families now face the highest risk of starvation, according to the UN OCHA’s Somalia Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan 2026.

Fatima, 40, has fled five times – three times because of conflict, twice because of drought. Each time she has left behind land, livestock, and the small possessions her family has managed to save.

“This is the fifth time I have fled,” she says. “I am still facing the drought and I have nothing to feed my family.”

Families have walked for days, eating wild plants along the road and have arrived in displacement camps in Baidoa and Dollow with nothing.

Many reach the sites malnourished and exhausted, carrying children too weak to walk. What they find there is not relief, but abandonment.

Aid funding in Somalia has declined sharply. This year, only 14 percent of the funds requested for humanitarian response have been received, according to OCHA’s Financial Tracking Service.

Somalia was intentionally left out of the $2bn global humanitarian aid pledge announced by the United States for this year due to allegations of aid diversion, corruption and the destruction of a US-funded World Food Programme (WFP) warehouse in the country, according to officials.

“Humanitarian services are one of the only things we can rely on, but it is completely gone,” says a man displaced from Bakool who walked more than 100km to reach Baidoa. The April–June rainy season, known as Gu, has begun, but it offers limited relief.

For families who have lost their herds and farms after years of successive droughts, rain alone cannot rebuild what has been destroyed. People need immediate assistance.

This photo essay is provided by the Norwegian Refugee Council.

📰 மூல செய்தி (Source): https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2026/4/27/somalia-hunger-crisis-worsens-as-drought-displaces-over-500000-people?traffic_source=rss