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A month before the start of the 2026 World Cup, criticism of FIFA over dynamic pricing and the resale market for tickets is mounting. Even Donald Trump has declared that he would not pay the amounts requested for some matches...
With just four weeks to go before the opening match of the 2026 World Cup, discontent over ticket prices is growing in the United States. Criticism is coming not only from American fans and politicians, but also from President Donald Trump himself, who recently declared that he “wouldn’t pay” the asking price for some tournament tickets.
According to Swiss media outlet NZZ, FIFA has set dynamic ticket prices for the World Cup, which will be held in the United States, Canada and Mexico. For the first match of the US national team against Paraguay, the minimum ticket price reached around $1,000.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino has faced criticism for months over his pricing policy. He has argued that the market determines the value of tickets and has compared the situation to the high prices in American college sports.
However, the backlash in the US has been mounting. Several members of the US Congress have sent letters to Infantino criticizing the “non-transparent” pricing policy and high resale fees. In California, the attorney general has launched an investigation after complaints from fans who claim they were defrauded by ticket sales practices.
FIFA has significantly changed the way it sells tickets compared to previous World Cups. In addition to dynamic pricing, the organization has also created its own official ticket resale platform, where a 15 percent fee is applied to both buyers and sellers.
According to sports economist Christoph Breuer from the Sport University of Cologne, FIFA has "taken the commercialization of the World Cup to a new level."
There are currently thousands of tickets on the online market at very different prices, often for the same section of the stadium. For example, for the Switzerland-Qatar match in San Francisco, a first-class ticket was offered for $337, while another for the same section went for up to $6,900. In the tournament final, a ticket on the secondary market was listed for $11.5 million.
Another concern is the use of artificial intelligence and "bots" for mass ticket buying during the early stages of sales. Experts believe that a large part of the record demand for tickets came not from ordinary fans, but from speculators aiming for profits through resale.
Although FIFA announced in April that it had sold over 5 million tickets out of more than 6 million available, there are still thousands of empty seats on the market, even for matches by host nations like the USA and Canada.
Data from ticketdata.com shows that over the past month, ticket prices have fallen for 103 of the 104 World Cup matches. In about two-thirds of cases, the decrease has been over 20 percent.
This has raised expectations that many fans may choose to wait a little longer before buying tickets for the 2026 World Cup.
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