FIFA, you may recall, spent approximately four hundred press conferences between 2018 and 2024 telling us that the 2026 World Cup would be "the most fan-friendly tournament in history." Gianni Infantino himself used the phrase "fans at the heart of everything" so many times it started to sound like a medical condition. So naturally, when Scotland and England were drawn in the same group with matches in Boston, supporters of both nations did what supporters do: they started planning.

And then they checked the train prices.

Actually, the numbers say quite a lot here, and you really won't like them. Amtrak's Acela service from New York to Boston, the most logical route for fans flying into the US, currently runs at about $49 for a standard off-peak fare. But for the World Cup match window, prices are already showing at $184 for the same journey. That is a 276% increase. For context, 276% is roughly the same rate of inflation you'd experience if you tried to buy a pint inside Wembley, except this is just the train to get to the ground.

I ran some comparisons because that is apparently what I do instead of having hobbies. At the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, FIFA arranged a free metro service for all ticket holders on match days. Free. As in zero. As in the polar opposite of $184. At the 2018 World Cup in Russia, all ticket holders received a Fan ID that granted free intercity rail travel between host cities. The entire country. For free. Russia managed this. Qatar managed this. The United States of America, the wealthiest nation on earth, co-hosting with two perfectly nice neighbours, has managed a 276% fare hike and a shrug.

But wait, it gets better. FIFA's own 'Fan Experience Strategy' document, published in 2024, contains the phrase "affordable and accessible transportation" exactly seven times across its 86 pages. Seven mentions. Zero binding commitments. Zero memoranda of understanding with Amtrak, Greyhound, or any domestic carrier. I read the entire document. Those are 47 minutes of my life I will never recover, but the data was worth it: of the 16 host cities, only three have confirmed any form of subsidised transport for ticket holders, and Boston is emphatically not one of them.

Here's the stat that really stings. The average Scotland fan travelling to the 2024 Euros in Germany spent approximately £1,400 on the entire trip: flights, accommodation, transport, food, tickets, and a regrettable amount of lager. Early estimates for the 2026 World Cup group stage trip to the US put the equivalent figure at £3,200. That is a 129% increase tournament on tournament. The Tartan Army are famously the most dedicated travelling supporters in world football. They hold the Guinness World Record for the largest away following at a single match (over 20,000 in Dortmund last summer). These are not people with unlimited budgets. These are people who save for years. And they are being told, essentially, that the reward for their devotion is dynamic pricing on a train.

England fans, meanwhile, face identical costs but will at least have the comfort of being able to complain about it in the accent that Amtrak's customer service line was designed for.

The fundamental absurdity is this: FIFA generated $7.5 billion in revenue from the 2022 cycle. They will generate more from 2026, because the tournament has been expanded to 48 teams and 104 matches. They could subsidise every single train journey for every single ticket holder in every single host city and it would cost them roughly 0.3% of that revenue. I ran the numbers. They won't do it.

Fan experience. Heart of everything. $184 to sit on a train.

At least the baseball stadium will be nice.