A comparison between FIFA World Cup ticket prices in Qatar 2022 and North America 2026 highlights the dramatic increase in costs across every category, from group-stage matches to the final
FIFA President Gianni Infantino defended World Cup ticket prices, saying “if we are doing something wrong, everyone in North America is doing something wrong.”
FIFA priced tickets starting at $140 for the 48-nation, 104-game tournament and priced regular seats up to $8,680 for the 19 July final in New Jersey. It raised prices for the final to $10,990 and then $32,970. After criticism, FIFA offered a small number of $60 tickets to national federations for their regular supporters.
Infantino said the average ticket price was under $500 for the tournament and was comparable to other US sports during their playoffs, a claim that while true for resale prices does not appear to be accurate for list prices. He said he was unconcerned about investigations by attorneys general in California, New Jersey, New York, and Texas.
Infantino said that the secondary ticket market is beyond his organisation’s control when it comes to the high prices fans are seeing for World Cup games. He pointed to the NBA Finals between the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs as an example of how other major American sporting events are experiencing a similar surge in prices.
“We are very relaxed about it because before starting to sell 6.5 million or 7 million tickets we check what we do with the best lawyers,” he said. “We welcome every investigation.”
The International Sports Press Association (AIPS) believes the tickets to be expensive, more than the previous edition in 2022. “The opening matches of the 2026 FIFA World Cup drew huge crowds, from more than 80,000 spectators at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City to sell-outs for several host-nation fixtures. Yet television images from several matches have shown significant numbers of empty seats, especially in VIP and corporate areas where many tickets had already been purchased by sponsors and companies. The contrast has fuelled questions about pricing and accessibility at the tournament. Recent reports have highlighted concerns over unsold tickets and visibly sparse areas in some stadiums despite FIFA’s strong attendance figures,” Andrea Migliavacca wrote on the AIPS website. “World Cup ticket prices: Is the beautiful game pricing out its fans, believing that a World Cup is for everyone? And the comparison with Qatar 2022 is striking. A Category 1 ticket for the opening match has risen from $618 to $2,735. The cheapest ticket for the final has increased from $206 to $2,030, while the most expensive final ticket has jumped from $1,607 to $6,370. Across almost every category, prices have multiplied several times over. Fan organisations have repeatedly warned that the cost of attending matches in North America is dramatically higher than it was four years ago.”
The figures raise an obvious question. Many of the supporters who traditionally follow their national teams in the US, Canada, and Mexico come from immigrant communities whose passion for football is unquestionable, but whose budgets may not stretch to thousands or even hundreds of dollars for a single match ticket. If some stadiums continue to show empty seats beyond the headline fixtures, ticket prices may prove to be one of the explanations. The World Cup has always belonged to the fans; the challenge is ensuring they can still afford to be there. Germany 2006 remains a benchmark for fan engagement. Through extensive fan zones and city-wide activities that attracted more than 18 million visitors, the tournament succeeded in bringing supporters closer to the event rather than pushing them away from it.
For the sake of completeness, FIFA has rejected suggestions that official attendance figures do not reflect actual crowds inside stadiums. In a statement posted on X, the governing body said that “official attendance figures reflect the number of tickets scanned and spectators present within the stadium footprint, rather than visual assessments of seating occupancy at any given moment during the match”. FIFA added that “during the match in Guadalajara, several ticketed fans could be seen standing in concourses rather than staying in their assigned seats throughout the match.”
* A version of this article appears in print in the 18 June, 2026 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.
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