FIFA is increasing ticket prices for the World Cup finals as sales reopen due to problems

FIFA raised the top ticket price for the World Cup finals to $10,990 during Wednesday’s problem-hindered reopening of sales after finalizing the 48-team field for this year’s tournament.

The price was $8,680 when FIFA sold tickets after the tournament draw in December.

FIFA’s Category 2 tickets for the July 19 match at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, cost $7,380, up from $5,575, and Category 3 cost $5,785, up from $4,185.

Tickets were available for 17 of the 72 group stage matches and none of the knockout matches on Wednesday evening.

Soccer’s governing body is offering dynamic pricing for the tournament, which will be played in 11 U.S. cities, plus three in Mexico and two in Canada.

Only $2,735 tickets, the most expensive seats, were available in the evening for the June 12 U.S. opener against Paraguay at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, and the price was unchanged from December. No tickets were listed for the Americans’ June 19 game against Australia in Seattle or their June 25 game against Turkey in Inglewood.

As of Wednesday evening, only $2,985 seats were available for the tournament opener between Mexico and South Africa on June 11 in Mexico City, down from $2,355 in December. And there were only $2,240 tickets available for Canada’s first game on June 12 against Bosnia-Herzegovina in Toronto, up from $2,170.

Football’s governing body did not reveal which games and prize categories were available, leaving potential ticket buyers to search for themselves on a FIFA ticket site, which often took hours to get into.

Some people who clicked on what FIFA called the «last-minute sales phase» when the sale started at 11 a.m. EDT were put in line for the «PMA late qualifier supporter sales phase,» aimed at a segment of fans for the six countries that earned a berth on Tuesday.

FIFA had no explanation for the link misdirection, but said around noon that the links were working properly.

FIFA also said that not all remaining tickets for the 104 matches have gone on sale and that additional tickets will be released on a rolling basis mps3ds.

This was the fifth phase of ticket sales following a Visa presale draw from September 10 to 19, an early draw from October 27 to 31, a random selection draw from December 11 to January 13, and an unscheduled 48-hour availability in late February.

FIFA said this stage, which will remain open throughout the tournament, marked the first time a specific seat location could be purchased instead of applying for a ticket in a category.

For the month-long sales phase after the Dec. 5 drawing, tickets cost $140 to $8,680. Following complaints, FIFA said $60 tickets would be made available to each participating national federation for their most loyal supporters, an amount likely to amount to 400-700 per team for each match.

“The use of dynamic ticket pricing for the 2026 FIFA World Cup is in stark contrast to FIFA’s core mission to advance the accessible and inclusive promotion and development of soccer worldwide,” 69 Democratic members of Congress wrote in a March 10 letter to FIFA President Gianni Infantino. “Despite the cooperation of the host cities in realizing the vision of the biggest, most global World Cup in history, the consequences of dynamic pricing will make the 2026 FIFA World Cup the most financially excluded and inaccessible yet.”

FIFA also has its own resale market, collecting 15% from both the buyer and seller.

Bosnia-Herzegovina, Congo, Czech Republic, Iraq, Sweden and Turkey completed the World Cup field. Fans of teams eliminated on Tuesday can try to resell tickets they had already purchased to countries such as Italy, Poland, Denmark, Jamaica and Bolivia.

Infantino claimed in January that the number of ticket requests FIFA had received was the equivalent of «requesting 1,000 years of the World Cup in one go.»

“This is unique,” ​​he said at the time. “It’s incredible.”

It was unclear whether many of those requests were for seats in the lowest price categories.

Fan groups have raised concerns about rising costs for resold tickets and one lodged a formal complaint with the European Commission last month.

Infantino defended FIFA’s cut of resales, saying the governing body was engaging in lawful commercial activity under US law. Some European countries have laws that may restrict resale by requiring tickets to be sold at face value or only by authorized partners of the event organizers.

Published on April 4, 2026