The FIFA World Cup is nearing and tickets are selling fast. However, It seems like the prices for tickets are skyrocketing. It has gone into the millions. FIFA have sought to defer the blame to America's resale.
FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, has again defended high ticket prices for this summer's World Cup and brushed off seats for the final being resold at a cost of more than $2 million.
Ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which is set to kick off next month, football fans in the United States and across the world have been expressing outrage over the ticket prices; which are considerably higher than they have been for previous World Cup tournaments. However, FIFA President Gianni Infantino has no plans to change those prices, much to the displeasure of fans.
During an appearance at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills on Tuesday, Infantino addressed the criticism directed at world football's governing body over the prices set for the tournament and the adoption of dynamic pricing.
FIFA has been accused by fans of a "monumental betrayal" on ticket costs, but Infantino has previously stressed that the revenue from the flagship tournament supports the development of soccer globally.
Fans have been further angered by the addition of more expensive categories as the tournament approaches. Many of the tickets still on general sale are for the more expensive categories.
"We have to look at the market," Infantino said. "We are in the market in which entertainment is the most developed in the world, so we have to apply market rates."
"In the U.S., it is permitted to resell tickets as well, so if you were to sell tickets at the price which is too low, these tickets will be resold at a much higher price. And as a matter of fact, even though some people are saying that the ticket prices we have are high, they still end up on the resale market at an even higher price, more than double our price."
Tickets are available via resale platforms including FIFA's own marketplace, and last month four seats for the World Cup final were listed at just under $2.3 million each.
FIFA does not control the asking prices on its resale platform but does take a 15% purchase fee from the buyer of each ticket and a 15% resale fee from the seller.
"If some people put on the resale market some tickets for the final at $2 million, No. 1, it doesn't mean that the tickets cost $2 million, and No. 2, it doesn't mean that somebody will buy these tickets," Infantino said. "And if somebody buys a ticket for the final for $2 million, I will personally bring a hot dog and a Coke to make sure that he has a great experience."
Tickets are still available on FIFA's official website through its "last-minute sales" section after batches had been released through various phases since September.
"We have 25% of the group stage tickets which can be bought for less than $300," Infantino said. "You cannot go to watch in the U.S. a college game, not even speaking about a top professional game of a certain level, for less than $300. And this is the World Cup."
This, of course, is completely untrue, even generously assuming Infantino is discussing college American football and not college soccer. While the average ticket price of some high-level college football games can indeed exceed $300, that is the exception, not the rule. Tickets for most college football games start at around $30.
Though prices for Super Bowls and College Football national championship games can rival what is being charged for some World Cup matches, tickets for college and professional sporting events in the U.S.A., including the ongoing NBA play-offs, are regularly available for less than $300.
As the days tick down to the start of the World Cup, senior FIFA figures under Gianni Infantino are understood to be "very nervous" about other numbers. Ticket sales are nowhere near expectations, despite bombastic talk of 500 million requests.
There’s an obvious reason that anyone could have told FIFA. If they are "nervous," loyal fans are agonising over life-changing money. Bodies like the Football Supporters Association (FSA) and US-based executives like the former Liverpool CEO, Peter Moore, estimate that it will cost between $10 000 and $35 000 to follow your team right through.
Even the home supporters – including Donald Trump – feel it is far too costly, as indicated by the low sales reported by The Athletic for the USA’s opening game in Los Angeles.
"FIFA overplayed their hand," one involved source says, "and got the pricing wrong."
"I wouldn’t pay it, either," Trump even said on Thursday, as he added he would be "disappointed" if his voters couldn’t go. That must have been especially embarrassing for Infantino.
So much for the supposedly universal US "culture" of being willing to pay high prices for any major “entertainment event” that Fifa apparently had to abide by.
Such arguments play into another schism, which points to how this World Cup may drastically influence football’s future. That’s the philosophical tension between the idea of football as a cultural good – most visible in the European model of sport and the UK football governance bill – and US consumerism, where it’s just another commodity.
FIFA, officially a non-profit charity notionally safeguarding the game, have overwhelmingly come down on one side.
The ticket pricing – headlined by some final tickets listed on FIFA's resale site for over $1m – is all the worse because of the awareness that everything else is going to cost so much. Even qualified teams are still concerned that they could lose money due to expenses.
It is a huge departure from every previous tournament; with so many jaw-dropping numbers.
For the eventual finalists, most fans will pay a minimum of £5 200 for tickets alone. The initial controversy about such figures may now lead to the absurdity of family members sitting beside each other but paying thousands of pounds more due to one being fortunate enough to qualify for the token number of $60 Category 4 tickets created after that outcry.
"And we still don’t know where final seated categories will be," says the FSA’s Thomas Concannon, amid further criticism for how some tickets have had their positions moved. Football Supporters Europe quip that it’s "dynamic categorisation."
Some of those cheaper tickets for England-Croatia have still appeared on FIFA’s official resale site for $2 300.
The issue of this "secondary market" – and how "touting" is legal in the US – has admittedly created a unique challenge for this World Cup, but some of the responses are still baffling.
As well as cashing in on huge potential mark-ups, FIFA takes a 15% "resale facilitation fee" and another 15% from the seller.
The governing body’s persistent line is that all revenue is ultimately redistributed around the game; primarily through the FIFA Forward programme.
Even if that were singularly true and FIFA didn’t also have a duty to make the game accessible; one source has an obvious response.
"Let’s see some transparency," show where the money actually goes.
A greater frustration is that FIFA, who are understood to have reserves of over $2.5bn, were going to make huge money anyway. Tickets were calculated at less than 50% of total revenue, which was estimated to be a record $11bn – $4bn more than Qatar – from the original prices promised in the bid book back in 2018.
"You could easily chop $5bn off and everyone, including FIFA, benefits," says Moore, now the founding owner of the US club, Santa Barbara Sky in California.
Weighing over all of this, however, is that FIFA’s redistribution model has also served as a long-criticised vote-returning mechanism. Infantino spreads the money around, and grateful associations elect him back in. More money was the core part of his manifesto back in 2016. The last few weeks have already brought calls for the president’s re-election from Conmebol and CAF, despite questions over term limits.
A similar lack of transparency surrounds how ticket pricing was decided upon. Some of the most senior FIFA figures have no clue. They maintain they were simply presented with plans from the president’s office, which is how every major decision now works.
Sources with knowledge of the dynamics around Infantino say he is primarily surrounded by US-based advisers working, "to fully optimise revenue using all tools available."
There appears to be minimal interrogation of the actual merit of this. That alone marks another significant departure for FIFA, especially from the last World Cup in the US.
Before 1994, tournament architect, Alan Rothenberg, had multiple ideas about tickets, which he details in The Big Bounce.
Rothenberg wanted "a really high-priced ticket" due to the associated prestige, as well as having every seat at the final priced at $1 000. In some echoes to now, too, he argued that "the street value would be at least that" so touts shouldn’t get the benefit.
"FIFA said no.” Why? "Overly concerned about average fans’ reaction."
The difference to now is galling. This was Joao Havelange’s FIFA, notorious for creating a model of governance corruption that the modern Fifa now crow as having left behind.
"The simple question," Moore ponders, "is who this World Cup is supposed to be for. These are once-in-lifetime chances for fans," Concannon adds.
FIFA barely appear to have even acknowledged that, other than to consider what price can be put on it. The US’ "secondary market" might still have put an even greater price on it, of course but it’s like Fifa didn’t even want to consider obvious workarounds. They could've apportioned more to qualified associations to distribute according to loyalty schemes, in the way fan culture generally works.
Rather than appreciating a ticket as something with that cultural value, though, FIFA has instead repositioned them as an appreciable asset.
Needless to say, these comments from Infantino didn't go over well with fans, who blasted the FIFA president on social media.
"I’ve been to NHL and NBA playoffs for under $300 per ticket. I’ve been to NFL and College football games for under $300 a ticket. Hell, two years ago I was able to purchase several Copa America match tickets for like $75 each," one fan wrote in a post on X.
"How Infantino manages to embarrass himself further and make Blatter look more palatable in hindsight should not be possible. Generationally awful," someone else wrote.
"Infantino getting facts wrong and totally out of touch with football fans and fan sentiment. He doesn’t care about football, the fans or even FIFA only himself, he’s a narcissist," another fan added.
"Just blatantly lying to justify robbing us," someone else said.
"Even if it were true – how many people going to those college football games are flying halfway around the World to support their team? And how many times do the hotels and transport rates for those matches get hiked up?? He’s defending the indefensible," another fan wrote.
Tickets for most of the FIFA World Cup group games remain on general sale, ranging from $380 to $4105, with just over a month to go until the tournament kicks off 11June.
FIFA shouldn't deflect the blame. It's clear to me that they set the prices. They even take a % of the resealed tickets. They are greedy when it comes to money. They should think more of the fans and customers rather than themselves.