FIFA World Cup 2026 — All 104 matches sold out: President Infantino

FIFA president Gianni Infantino said all 104 matches of the 2026 World Cup will be ‘sold out’, despite tickets being available for the tournament which runs from June 11 to July 19.

«The demand is there. Every game is sold out,» Infantino told CNBC in an interview Wednesday from U.S. President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

Infantino said there had been 508 million ticket requests from more than 200 countries in four weeks for about seven million available tickets.

“(We’ve) never seen anything like this before – unbelievable,” he said.

The 48-team World Cup will take place in 16 host cities across the United States, Mexico and Canada, with MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ, serving as the site of the World Cup finals.

The head of the sport’s governing body said tournament venues are contributing to the exorbitant ticket prices that football supporters’ associations have complained about.

“I think it’s because it’s in America, Canada and Mexico,” he said. “Everyone wants to be part of something special.”

Also affecting prices are resale websites, which take the official fixed-price ticket and use ‘dynamic pricing’, which causes costs to fluctuate.

“You can also resell your tickets on official platforms and secondary markets so prices will also increase,” Infantino said. “That’s part of the market we’re in.”

A report in the Straits Times said a Category 3 seat – the highest part of the stadium – for Mexico’s match against South Africa in the tournament opener on June 11 in Mexico City was worth $5,324 on the secondary market. The original price was $895.

The same seat category for the World Cup final on July 19, originally priced at $3,450, was advertised for $143,750 on February 11, the report said.

In December, FIFA designated «supporter entry level» tickets priced at $60, to be allocated to the national federations whose teams play. These federations are expected to make these tickets available «to loyal fans who are closely associated with their national teams,» FIFA said in a press release.

The last time the US hosted the World Cup in 1994, tickets ranged from $25 to $475. At the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, prices ranged from $70 to $1,600 after the matches were announced.

Infantino estimated in his comments this week that the 2026 World Cup will generate $11 billion in revenue for FIFA, with “every dollar” across the 211 member states reinvested in the sport.

He said the economic impact for the United States would be about $30 billion “in terms of tourism, catering, security investments and so on.” Infantino also estimated that the tournament will attract 20 to 30 million tourists and create 185,000 full-time jobs.

Published on February 20, 2026