Football Supporters Europe (FSE) has undertaken a project to compare the cheapest tickets for men’s domestic cup finals and the average daily wage in 20 countries across Europe. This specific comparison gives a more accurate depiction of how expensive tickets are in each country because it shows the ticket prices alongside the average daily wage in each country.
This study compares the two metrics to provide a deeper understanding of the cost of attending cup finals across the continent and follows on from FSE’s analysis of away ticket prices in UEFA Club Competitions in November 2023.
For example, if Country A and Country B have the same price for the cheapest tickets at their finals, but the average daily wage is lower in Country B, supporters in Country B will be hit harder financially by following their team than fans in Country A.
The cheapest ticket price for each country was calculated by collecting data from the last three seasons for the cheapest regular adult ticket price (excluding restricted view tickets).
The average cheapest ticket available was priced at €28, with the lowest price identified in Moldova at €5 and the highest in Spain at €85.
The average price for the cheapest ticket across the data collected was 24% of a daily wage; Spain was the most expensive with its cheapest ticket 94% of that country’s average daily wage, leaving plenty of room for Cup organisers to consider affordability.
The analysis uses the data that was available as of 9 May 2024.
Explanatory Note: “Men‘s Domestic Cup Finals Cheapest Ticket Price As A Percentage Of Average Daily Wage Per Country”
In this graph, each bar indicates the Average Daily Wage (working day revenue) of the country mentioned below it. The lower section of each bar shows the price of the cheapest ticket for the related domestic cup final.
The aim of this graph is to show how much the cheapest ticket prices cost in comparison to the working day revenue of a citizen in each country. As an example, England has an average working day revenue of €130, and the cheapest ticket price is €50. This means that this ticket costs approximately 40% of the average working day revenue of an English citizen.
Average Daily Wage Methodology
The Average Daily Wage (working day revenue) of each country has been calculated as follows: the starting point is the adjusted net national income per capita (in US Dollar) as of 2021, provided by the World Bank. It is first converted into Euro thanks to the monthly (May 2024) Euro-Dollar exchange rate from the European Commission database and divided into 52 to reach an average weekly income per person for each country. Next, as most people in Europe work 5 days a week, the aforementioned figure is divided by 5, which gives the “working day revenue”. Sources: European Commission & World Bank.