\n<\/p>\n
“It’s a chance to qualify. It is a chance to participate in a big event,” Fifa president Gianni Infantino declared in January 2017.<\/p>\n
The Fifa Council had just unanimously voted to expand the World Cup to 48 teams. Nations who had never or rarely reached the finals were being given hope.<\/p>\n
Infantino added: “Football is more than Europe and South America. Football is global. <\/p>\n
“The football fever you have in a country that qualifies for the World Cup is the most powerful tool you can have, in those nine months before qualifying and the finals.”<\/p>\n
Yet that “football fever” is falling a little flat after the ticket prices were released. <\/p>\n
While the players will be there, the price of tickets could outstrip wages. <\/p>\n
Take Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the world. The average wage in the Caribbean nation is around $147 (\u00a3110) a month. <\/p>\n
The cheapest tickets for Haiti’s first game at the World Cup in 52 years, against Scotland, cost $180 (\u00a3135). <\/p>\n
To attend all three matches – they also play Brazil and Morocco – would cost $625 (\u00a3467). That’s more than four months’ salary for the average Haitian, just to get into the ground.<\/p>\n
It’s a similar story for Ghana, where the average monthly salary is around $254 (\u00a3190). <\/p>\n
Ghana supporter Jojo Quansah told BBC World Service that fans would have to cancel their plans.<\/p>\n
“It’s a bit of a disappointment for those who, for the last three-and-a-half years, have been trying to put some money away in the hope that they can have their first World Cup experience,” he said. <\/p>\n
“Fifa themselves have gone ahead to increase the number of teams so a lot more smaller football nations will get a chance to have themselves and their fans represented. <\/p>\n
“It’s been overshadowed by pricing those same fans out of a chance to watch their country play at the World Cup.<\/p>\n
“I have a feeling that quite a number of people within the next couple of months, are going to drop out of that desire to be at the next World Cup. Sadly. So sadly.”<\/p>\n
Other nations could see their fans priced out. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n