Football fans around the world have been left scratching their heads at the number of empty seats on show during the Qatar and Switzerland World Cup game. This comes as a technical glitch left fans in the stadium baffled in the build-up to a penalty.
The FIFA World Cup is fully underway with the Socceroos set to take on Turkey in their opening game of the tournament. The USA already made a statement in the same group with a big win over Paraguay in their opening clash.
Football have questioned why there appeared to be plenty of empty seats on show during the Qatar and Switzerland World Cup game. (Getty Images)
(Getty Images)
However, viewers have been left stunned to see a large number of empty seats during the broadcast to start the tournament across a number of games. The latest contest to come under scrutiny was Qatar’s 1-1 draw with Switzerland.
Temperatures reached 28 degrees Celsius in the Bay Area in California with the east side stand often warming up. However, images showed plenty of empty seats littered throughout the stadium come kick-off.
Fans watch the action among empty seats during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Group B match between Qatar and Switzerland. (Photo by Doug Zimmerman/ISI Photos/ISI Photos via Getty Images)
(Doug Zimmerman/ISI Photos via Getty Images)
The exorbitant cost of tickets has been a talking point leading into the World Cup. The attendance was listed at 67,966. While this is close to the capacity of 68,827, the number of empty seats raised eyebrows.
Whether it was the warm weather and fans had retreated into the shade, or because of unsold tickets, fans couldn’t believe the game between Qatar and Switzerland didn’t appear to be played in front of a packed stadium. This is just the latest game where fans have questioned why there are plenty of empty stadiums at the stadiums in the world’s biggest tournament.
There first game to raise eyebrows was Mexico’s opening game in Guadalajara. However, FIFA pushed back and said the official attendance figure was accurate and that “several ticketed fans could be seen standing in concourses rather than staying in their assigned seats throughout the match.”
FIFA clarify technical glitch during game
Qatar ended up scoring in the 9th minute to secure a famous 1-1 draw against Switzerland. Though the game was also marred after a technical glitch left everyone scratching their heads.
Switzerland were awarded a penalty, but fans felt their player was offside in the build-up to the move. However, a ‘brief technical outage’ meant the images couldn’t be shown to fans. Although FIFA confirmed the outage was only for the broadcast with VAR still working for the officials.
FIFA claimed: “The workflow of the VAR was not affected by this issue and followed the normal procedure…” The Swizterland player was deemed onside and the penalty stood.
Despite Switzterland taking a 1-0 lead, Boualem Khoukh scored a header deep into stoppage time to rescue a point for Qatar in Group B. All four teams are level in the group with host nation Canada drawing with Bosnia-Herzegovina.