{"id":478219,"date":"2026-06-05T20:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T20:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/478219\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T20:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T20:02:08","slug":"i-dont-want-to-give-my-money-to-fifa-toronto-turns-its-back-on-the-world-cup-world-cup-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/478219\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I don\u2019t want to give my money to Fifa\u2019: Toronto turns its back on the World Cup | World Cup 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

As far back as he can remember, football has long been a part of Lawrence Yee\u2019s life. Growing up in a Canadian town where hockey was the dominant sport, he found community and passion in the game. The sport \u2013 and the full, at times devastating, spectrum of emotion that comes with fandom \u2013 has remained braided into adulthood. Nearly four years ago, when Fifa announced Toronto and Vancouver would join 14 other cities in hosting the World Cup<\/a>, Yee was ecstatic.<\/p>\n

\u201cHearing the biggest stage, the highest competition, the biggest tournament in the world was coming into Toronto<\/a>? I couldn\u2019t believe it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s the opportunity of a lifetime for someone like me. Being able to live in the city and cycle to the venue? I knew I\u2019d be the first in line for tickets.\u201d<\/p>\n

But when Canada takes to the field to play Bosnia and Herzegovina on 12 June, the first men\u2019s World Cup match ever played on Canadian soil, Yee won\u2019t be in the stands. Nor will he attend any of the other group stage games. His initial excitement \u2013 and that of hundreds of thousands of others in the country \u2013 has collided with Fifa\u2019s new pricing structure for tickets<\/a>, where fans are being asked to pay what they feel are exorbitant prices<\/a> for tickets.<\/p>\n

Less than two weeks before Vancouver and Toronto host games, hundreds of tickets for each of the 10 games in Canada<\/a> remain unsold, a reality that appears at odds with previous reports of overwhelming demand. Even hotels are only at 80% capacity, a figure typical for summer months.<\/p>\n

In April, Gianni Infantino, the Fifa president, told attendees in Vancouver that demand for tickets was 10 times the amount of the last two World Cups together.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had 500 million ticket requests. In the last two World Cups together, we had 50 million ticket requests. Here, 500 million. We sold 100% of the inventory that we put on the market, which is more or less 90% of the global inventory so far,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But that demand appears to have hit a wall when it comes to prices. The cheapest tickets to Canada\u2019s opening game, at face value, are more than C$1,000 (\u00a3535).<\/p>\n

Infantino has defended the pricing structure, telling reporters: \u201cWe are always putting tickets on the market. There are expensive tickets, yes, but there are also affordable tickets.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Toronto Stadium looms in the distance as preparations for the tournament continue in the city. Photograph: Anadolu\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

But the idea of maximizing revenues, and selling out a stadium, are different objectives, said Moshe Lander, a sports economist at Concordia University. Under the current strategy, it makes more sense for Fifa to sell high-priced tickets than to fill seats.<\/p>\n

\u201cFifa controls the World Cup,\u201d said Lander. \u201cThere is no competition, so they can behave in whatever immoral, unethical, improper way they want \u2013 unless fans are prepared to walk away. Not just by avoiding giving them money, but also not going to the local pub and watching the matches. If enough people do it, they might change their behaviour.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Fifa spokesperson told the Guardian: \u201cNever before in the tournament\u2019s history have more tickets been sold directly to fans,\u201d pointing to the organization\u2019s decision to allocate at least 1,000 tickets priced at US$60 \u2013 a \u201cvery competitive price point for a major global sporting event\u201d.<\/p>\n

Fans point to previous World Cup tournaments where Fifa made tickets more accessible to residents, a strategy that has been supplanted by the lucrative idea of real-time pricing models.<\/p>\n

Fifa defended its the move, saying the variable pricing ticketing approach \u201caligns with industry trends across various sports and entertainment sectors, where price adaptations are made to optimize sales and attendance and ensure a fair market value for events\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ontario tried to clamp down on resellers, passing legislation that barred World Cup tickets in Toronto from being resold above face value. Fifa was forced to modify its resale marketplace for Toronto matches to comply with the law. Still, Yee says early efforts to secure tickets \u2013 through the lottery system and countless portals, draw windows and access codes \u2013 left him frustrated and he slowly felt the possibility of obtaining a ticket slipping away.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve given up and at this point, I don\u2019t want to give my money to Fifa,\u201d said Yee. \u201cI\u2019m done with them. I get that while they can control pricing, it feels like an affront to what makes football great: it\u2019s a sport for everyone. Accessibility ought to make it easier for fans \u2013 especially those living in the host cities \u2013 to see the games.\u201d<\/p>\n

A giant Canadian flag on Grouse Mountain above the city of Vancouver, where the cost of the tournament has skyrockted. Photograph: Grouse Mountain\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Increasingly, skeptics \u2013 in the form of city councillors<\/a> and elected officials who supported bringing the World Cup to Canada \u2013 have pointed out that cities bear the immense financial burden of hosting, while Fifa is able to take the revenue from ticket sales and broadcasting, and pay no taxes on it. Residents are paying for the games but many can\u2019t attend. In some cases, officials and Fifa planned to charge for public events that were promised to residents, before backtracking.<\/p>\n

While the original estimate for hosting the game in Toronto was as much as C$45m in 2018, it is now expected to cost at least C$380m. In Vancouver, the estimate for seven games was C$240m in 2022. It is now going to cost at least C$624m. According to<\/a> the parliamentary budget office, Canada will pay more than C$1bn to host the games, meaning each game will cost $C82m. Other Canadian cities, when they saw both the initial price tag \u2013 and the stringent guidelines Fifa ruthlessly enforces \u2013 balked.<\/p>\n

Still, Yee is excited for the teams and their fans to descend on the city. \u201cIt will be magical for people who get to go. And I really hope they have the best possible experience,\u201d he said. \u201cNow that I don\u2019t have to worry about tickets, I\u2019m excited to connect with friends. Maybe I\u2019ll host people at my place. There are local watch parties hosted by neighbourhoods. What I loved about soccer growing up was the idea of community. And I\u2019m looking forward to getting back to that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As far back as he can remember, football has long been a part of Lawrence Yee\u2019s life. Growing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-478219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}