Up to 15,000 England fans head to Dallas for World Cup opener

By

Football issues correspondent

England fans have had a longer wait than most for their 2026 World Cup campaign to get under way.

On Wednesday, six days after the tournament began, the Three Lions will walk out at the Dallas Stadium for their opener against Croatia.

It is difficult to predict how many England fans will turn up, draping the St George's Cross around the stands.

The official England Supporters' Travel Club (ESTC) has sold its allocation of 4,022 tickets. Controversially, a few appear to be listed on Fifa's resale site at inflated prices.

The number of fans who travel independently and the ex-pats is really an unknown.

The United Kingdom Football Policing Unit (UKFPU) told BBC Sport that between 12,000 and 15,000 England fans are expected at each group stage game.

The UKFPU added that 89,000 World Cup tickets have been purchased by fans from England.

That covers all 104 matches and there is no individual breakdown, while most fans will attend more than one fixture.

But that number does not include the supporters who have headed out to the United States without securing tickets.

Germany in 2006 was the high point, with the UKFPU estimating that 350,000 people made the short trip to watch games in stadia but mostly at fan parks.

Only 4,000 are thought to have visited Qatar four years ago, while 20,000 to 30,000 is a more usual figure.

The price of tickets for the 2026 World Cup has been controversial since the outset, with one England fan calling it a "betrayal" when they went on sale to members of the ESTC in December.

In Qatar, group stage fixtures had all set prices of £68.50, £164.50 and £219.

But for England's match against Croatia on Wednesday, tickets went on sale for £198, £373 or £523.

The small number available to the ESTC was always going to be quickly snapped up.

That left everyone else hoping to find a deal on Fifa's official resale site - which charges the buyer an extra 15% on top.

With the Three Lions being one off the most in-demand teams, resale tickets for the group games were in short supply - and they come at greatly inflated prices.

Thomas Concannon, who leads the Football Supporters' Association's England fans' group, told BBC Sport in April that many were holding on, hoping that prices would drop.

But it has not happened.

On Friday there were 984 tickets listed for the game, now there are just 293.

The cheapest resale ticket in category one has remained at around £1,310.

But the asking price for lower categories has risen.

In April, a category two ticket could be purchased for £874. On Tuesday, the best deal available was £1,254.

A category three ticket was £682 two months ago, but is now £1,311.

Perhaps most controversially, a handful of tickets apparently sold to ETSC members have appeared at much higher prices.

These appear on the Fifa resale site as the 'supporter standard' and 'supporter premier' categories, which were allocated to national associations.

As of Tuesday evening, two 'supporter standard' tickets were listed.

One has an asking price of £3,192 - add on the Fifa fee and it is £3,671. That is almost 10 times the £380 the buyer paid for it.

The other has an asking price of £1,178 - add on the Fifa fee and it is £1,355.

Multiple tickets have appeared in the last 24 hours and then disappeared. It is impossible to know if the tickets sold at the price demanded, or if they were taken off sale.

Two were in 'supporter premier'. The first was listed at £1,898, that's £2,183 including the Fifa fee - so comes in four times face value of £523. Another was listed for £100 more.

To try to prevent ESTC members reselling the cheapest £45 tickets which Fifa made available, the Football Association decided not to release these to wallets until Monday evening.

BBC Sport has not seen any of these "supporter entry" tickets appear for resale.

A few tickets have also been listed in the Croatia end from its national association allocation.

Many fans have been in Dallas soaking up the atmosphere for a few days.

The general feeling that travelling to the World Cup in the United States would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. But the cost is still weighing heavy.

"There's eight of us that are all together and we paid about £850 for a ticket each," Michael said as they sat outside a bar.

"That is a lot of money, you can get a season ticket for that."

Their group may have been bigger, but the cost of flights, accommodation and tickets put several people off.

"I hear stories about the stadiums and it's $20 a beer, and food is more than $30," he added.

"It does feel like you are getting gouged. But it's the World Cup.

"I just hope when it comes to 2030 we come back to normality, and things are a bit more sensible."

Guy and James from Newcastle landed on Saturday, but found out their hotel reservation had been cancelled and their tickets had fallen through.

"We've not got tickets but obviously we were still coming out," James said. "We'll go to fan zones, bars, and be with England fans."

Guy added: "We're going to try to get some tickets but the hope is slim to none. We'd spend £400 to £500 if we could get them."

While there were England fans around, it was not the familiar picture of bars being taken over by the Three Lions.

"I'm sceptical about how many [England fans] are going to be at the game but we'll have to see," Ian said.

"It is not going to be quite like what we had for the Euros back home or perhaps for South Africa.

"It's a shame because it's the people's game and I feel like 80 to 90% of people are priced out of the games.

"I really hope it doesn't set a precedent going forward."