Tickets for the 2022 World Cup are already going for $100,000 (£80,000) – or at least they are amongst Hollywood royalty.
That’s what actress Julia Roberts paid for a pair of seats for her and husband Danny Moder at the tournament in Qatar.
The tickets were up for auction at a pre-Golden Globes fundraiser organised by Holywood actor Sean Penn for his Haiti charity, Community Organised Efforts.
Stars who turned up for the event at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles also included Ben Stiller, Casey Affleck, Larry David and Connie Britton.
According to Variety magazine, the hottest ticket of the night were two sets of tickets to the next World Cup which kicks off in Doha in less than four years’ time.
Jamie Foxx, Keegan-Michael Key and Mike Meyers all took to the stage to big up the prize for the audience, and it was the Pretty Woman star who walked away with them after paying £80,000 for one set of tickets.
Roberts, 51, is a huge football fan who in the past has posed for pictures with the game’s biggest names including Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Juan Mata, Sergio Ramos, Zinedine Zidane, Luka Modric and Paul Pogba whom she described as a ‘superb human being’.
Her three children, Patricia, Phinnaeus, and eleven-year-old Henry, all support Manchester United and played at Old Trafford with Wayne Rooney’s children after a match against West Ham in 2016.
The actress became such a regular at stadiums in the US where Man Utd were playing pre-season friendlies that Andreas Pereira called her the squad’s ‘lucky charm’.
She described taking her children to training ahead of a match between Man Utd and Real Madrid as "one of the more magical experiences of my life".
"What I love about Manchester Utd is the feeling of family. That’s what we gravitate towards, is the closeness and warmth – there’s just a real connection that everyone has on the field and off the field. To get a glimpse of it and be a tiny part of it is thrilling", she said. "Paul Pogba gave my son a lovely talk about believing in yourself, it was lovely."
During the auction Mike Myers also matched a $50,000 (£40,000) bid to split the prize of staying at Heckfield Place in Hampshire to get the "Jane Austen experience".
Entertainment was provided by Macy Gray, Billie Ellish and Yusuf Islam, formerly Cat Stevens.
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