World Cup 2026: Penalties for Football Fans in Clothing Poverty

Since 11 June, all eyes have been on the 2026 FIFA World Cup, with knockout games currently in full swing across the United States, Canada and Mexico. But the frenzy which surrounds the competition has not been without controversy, as allegations of corruption towards FIFA reach an all-time high.

The London School of Economics (LSE) has branded the 2026 tournament “a classic example of monopolistic power monetising against fan loyalty.”¹ With ticket prices stretching into the multi-thousands, along with FIFA’s prolific history of human rights abuses, the World Cup today is characterised by controversy, corruption and greed.

This article will examine FIFA’s recent history of poor conduct, the World Cup’s intrinsic link to clothing and sustainability, and the consequences for underprivileged football fans – possibly experiencing clothing poverty – left unable to participate.

Ticket pricing

With the 2026 World Cup taking place in North America, and therefore outside of EU-regulation, ticket costs have been allowed to skyrocket under what FIFA has described as their new “variable pricing” experiment.¹

The LSE has outlined the shocking disparity between prices for the 2026 World Cup and previous years. A Category 1 seat for the 1994-2022 competitions averaged US$1300, whilst the same tickets for the 2026 competition are averaging a staggering US$32,970 – almost 25 times higher.¹

Worse still, for the first time in World Cup history, FIFA has introduced its own resale/exchange platform, which grants FIFA 15% of resale earnings directly. As far back as April, Sky News reported that “FIFA’s official marketplace for the [World Cup final] on 19 July shows 4 seats available for [US]$2,299,998.85 (£1.7m).”²

Corruption in FIFA

These inflated ticket prices can perhaps be seen as the culmination of FIFA’s recent history of alleged greed and corruption. The previous 2022 World Cup in Qatar had been marred with controversy amidst the shocking abuse and deaths of migrant workers building the stadiums required for the tournament.

Labour Behind the Label has reported that an estimated 6500 migrant workers died in the decade since Qatar won the right to host the World Cup. Surviving workers were forced to endure extreme labour conditions and 50°C heat, along with living in “squalid conditions” and having passports and wages withheld.³

Though FIFA has since pledged a £39.4m legacy fund designed for investment in social programmes in the region, Amnesty has damned this as a “shameful” stunt which “does absolutely nothing for the families who lost loved ones in Qatar and were plunged into poverty as a result.”⁴

The systemic greed of FIFA – from their shocking 2022 human rights’ abuses to their 2026 pricing system – indicates a lack of regard for the working-class people who champion football. Their attitude has set the stage for the 2026 competition’s controversies, and it is the working-class individual who will suffer in every case.

Price of fan apparel

The inflated prices for tickets across the 2026 World Cup fixtures, along with significant travel and accommodation costs for international ticketholders, means that attending the tournament is a total impossibility for impoverished football fans.

However, the exclusion does not end there. Football fans in the U.K. hoping to wear the kit of their national teams, possibly to attend home events, have been confronted with eye-watering prices for fan apparel.

On the Football Association’s website, England's adult-sized home, away and goalkeeper shirts, produced by Nike, are currently listed for £89.99. Scotland’s home shirt is similarly listed for £75.⁵

For many fans unable to pay, the only alternative is counterfeit kits. Lord Richard Walker of Broxton, speaking in the House of Lords on this matter, has noted the “serious issues” around counterfeit kits, often produced “in unregulated workshops where workers face severe exploitation.”⁵

The situation leaves football fans experiencing clothing poverty unable to wear the stripes of their teams, and facing even further social exclusion beyond the inability to purchase tickets for the World Cup itself.

Sustainability of team kits

More positively, the 2026 World Cup has seen reform in the materials used to produce the team kits. 11 national teams, including England, France and Brazil, are now wearing kits made from Nike’s Aero-FIT, a new sustainable fabric comprised entirely of recycled textile waste.⁶

The Aero-FIT fabric offers an alternative to the recycled polyester derived from plastic bottles used for kits in previous years, and even provides cooling technology to combat the temperatures and humidity experienced during the 2026 competition.

Valérie Boiten, the Senior Policy Advisor for Fashion at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, has urged for Nike’s Aero-FIT to become part of a broader shift “in terms of circular product design and business models to ensure textiles aren’t discarded in the first place.”⁶

It is important to note that, in previous years, “garment workers producing England football shirts for Nike [were] paid just over [US]$1 per hour.”³ These workers would often originate from the same countries as the migrant workers in Qatar building the football stadiums, all suffering the same abusive conditions.

While the labour standards surrounding the production of Nike’s Aero-FIT remain unclear, the fabric does present a promising textile-to-textile recycling model which could promote a circular fashion model within the sports industry overall.

Conclusion

From ticket prices to workers’ abuse to the complete exclusion of working-class football fans, the FIFA World Cup is in desperate need of reform.

However, the 2026 World Cup has also shown the power of the footballing community in spite of FIFA’s alleged corruption. From the Tartan Army showing up for bagpipe parades across Boston to the people of Cape Verde supporting their inaugural team going head-to-head against Argentina, reminders are everywhere that football is truly at home, not in the hands of the elite, but with the fans.

Whether it’s the FIFA World Cup or anything in between, in the fight against clothing poverty, no one should have to face social exclusion and non-participation.

References

1. LSE (2026). The EU must learn the lessons from FIFA’s ticket pricing at the 2026 World Cup.

2. Sky News (2026). World Cup final tickets go on sale for £1.7m each.

3. Labour Behind the Label (2022). Workers from the Global South are paying the price for Fifa World Cup.

4. BBC (2024). Fifa legacy fund ‘shameful’ says Amnesty.

5. The Independent (2026). World Cup football kits branded ‘completely unaffordable’ as families turn to fake alternatives.

6. Financial Times (2026). Could the 2026 World Cup make circular fashion covetable?