The Football Association’s spending on Wembley hospitality and complimentary tickets for FA Council members rose by 25% last season. Its latest accounts put expenditure on tickets and hospitality at £564,400 for 2025-26, up from £452,300 in 2024-25.
The increase comes against a backdrop of supporter unrest over pricing. Fans across the country have staged protests and walkouts in recent years over ticket price rises, and the cost-of-living crisis has made football increasingly unaffordable. Liverpool scrapped plans to increase ticket prices over three successive seasons following widespread unrest from supporters at the end of last season. Over the same period, the FA has upgraded the hospitality it offers to VIPs.
FA Council members — more than 120 of them, a group that includes English Football League chairman Rick Parry, Professional Footballers’ Association chief executive Maheta Molango and senior Premier League executives — can attend England and FA matches at Wembley, including the FA Cup semi-finals and final, and bring one guest free of charge. They receive complimentary meals and drinks and sit in premium seats.
An FA spokesperson said Council members are invited as guests to the England matches and FA competitions the governing body hosts, describing them as one of several groups invited to those fixtures alongside others such as the competing clubs and any visiting national associations. The spokesperson said the hospitality offering at those matches was updated over the past year to better reflect the hospitality offered by clubs and other football stakeholders, which had resulted in an increase in expenditure in that area.
The accounts point to further pressure ahead. The Fellowship of Council, an honorary membership scheme introduced in 2017, allows members who have served on the FA Council for at least nine years to continue receiving free tickets, food and drinks after stepping down. The FA’s company secretary, Richard McDermott, writes in the accounts that as the number of Fellowship members increases annually, the costs associated with match tickets and hospitality are likely to increase. He adds that the FA proposes to introduce changes to the benefits that go with Fellowship membership so that from 2027 those costs will start to reduce.
The cost of hosting FA Council meetings also almost doubled, rising from £18,600 to £33,200, with much of the increase attributed to higher hospitality expenditure.