Something for the weekend: The 2026 FIFA World Cup, due to begin on 11 June across the host countries of the US, Canada and Mexico, is fast approaching. Ahead of this, casino website AskGamblers looked into whether the average football fan can actually afford to attend any of the matches.
To compare and rank the affordability of the World Cup for each country, the website found the price of a round-trip flight to the host city for each nation attending, and the cost of the average ticket to their opening match. It also included the price of a hotel for a night, public transport to and from the stadium, and a hot dog and a drink at the game.
It additionally found the minimum wage and average wage of each country and multiplied it to produce a value for an average day’s work. Using the total it calculated earlier, it divided it by both the minimum and average wage of a day’s work.
The findings revealed that a UK worker must sacrifice two weeks of salary for 90 minutes of football. For those on an average UK wage, the trip requires 5.5 days of work, while a minimum wage earner needs to work for 15.7 days to afford a single opening match trip.
While a US employee can afford the trip in just four days, UK staff must work two and a half times longer for the same experience.
It also found that the three countries that would require the most days of work on minimum wage to earn enough money to travel to, attend the opening match and stay in the host city, are Haiti at 9,040.2 days or 24.6 years; Panama at 3,238.4 days or 8.9 years; and Iran at 2,266.2 days or 6.2 years.
Meanwhile, the three countries that would require the most days of work on their average wage to earn enough money to travel to, attend the opening match and stay in the host city, are Iran at 1,703.8 days or 4.7 years; Uzbekistan at 430.8 days or 1.2 years; and Egypt at 232.7 days or 0.6 years.
An AskGamblers spokesperson said: “We have consulted multiple sources for hotel costs, public transportation, match ticket prices, flights, and minimum and average salary information for all participating countries.”
Sounds like attending the World Cup this year is an expensive business!
