After announcing a record-breaking 150 million ticket requests in the previous two weeks, FIFA President Gianni Infantino yesterday defended the contentious ticket prices for the 2026 World Cup.
As reported by AFP, Infantino emphasized at the World Sports Summit in Dubai that the whole revenue generated by next year’s event in the US, Mexico, and Canada will be reinvested into football on a global scale.
While fan groups have characterized ticket pricing as “extortionate” and “astronomical,” Infantino made his first public comments on the matter since it flared up earlier this month.
FIFA said that a small number of tickets would be priced at $60 as a response to the criticism.
Over the past few days, there has been considerable discussion on ticketing and ticket costs, as Infantino mentioned at yesterday’s meeting in Dubai.
We began selling tickets two weeks ago, and now we have six or seven million. I can tell you that in just two weeks and fifteen days, we had 150 million requests for tickets. The World Cup’s influence is evident here.
According to Infantino, American requests for tickets topped all others, with German and British requests following closely behind.
“Just two weeks for the next World Cup, and we could have sold enough tickets to fill 300 years of World Cups,” Infantino remarked, referring to the fact that FIFA has sold 44 million tickets in the 100-year history of the tournament. “I can’t believe this.”
And the most important thing is that all of the money that comes from this is going to be reinvested in football around the world. FIFA is the only organization that does this.
There would be no football in 150 countries if FIFA didn’t exist. Thanks to the money we make from the World Cup, which we reinvest globally, there is football.
Among the most vocal opponents of FIFA’s 2026 pricing plan was the fan group Football Supporters Europe (FSE).
Earlier this month, the organization announced that tickets will be nearly five times more expensive than those for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
About the Author
