{"id":569966,"date":"2026-05-06T21:55:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T21:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/569966\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T21:55:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T21:55:09","slug":"gianni-infantino-says-high-world-cup-ticket-prices-are-justified-in-us-market-world-cup-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/569966\/","title":{"rendered":"Gianni Infantino says high World Cup ticket prices are justified in US market | World Cup 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fifa\u2019s president, Gianni Infantino<\/a>, has defended World Cup ticket prices, insisting that football\u2019s global governing body was obliged to take advantage of US laws that allow tickets to be resold for thousands of dollars above face value.<\/p>\n

Fifa has faced searing criticism over the cost of World Cup<\/a> tickets, with the fan organization Football Supporters Europe (FSE) calling the pricing structure \u201cextortionate\u201d and a \u201cmonumental betrayal\u201d. FSE filed a lawsuit with the European Commission in March targeting Fifa over \u201cexcessive ticket prices\u201d for the tournament.<\/p>\n

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Fifa\u2019s World Cup resale website last week advertised four tickets<\/a> to the final at a cost of $2.3m each. Fifa does not control the asking prices on its resale site but takes a 15% purchase fee from the buyer of each ticket and a 15% resale fee from the seller. That means Fifa would make $690,000 if one of the tickets for the final sold at $2.3m on resale.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, Infantino said the eye-watering prices reflected demand to watch the World Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf some people put on the resale market, some tickets for the final at $2m, number one it doesn\u2019t mean that the tickets cost $2m,\u201d Infantino said on Tuesday. \u201cAnd number two it doesn\u2019t mean that somebody will buy these tickets. And if somebody buys a ticket for the final for $2m I will personally bring him a hotdog and a Coke to make sure that he has a great experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fan groups have contrasted the difference in price of tickets for this summer with the Qatar World Cup in 2022. The most expensive ticket for the final in 2022 was about $1,600 at face value, while in 2026 the most expensive ticket for the final is about $11,000<\/a> at its original price.<\/p>\n

Infantino was adamant that the steep increase in face-value prices were justified.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to look at the market \u2013 we are in the market in which entertainment is the most developed in the world. So we have to apply market rates,\u201d Infantino said. \u201cIn the US it is permitted to resell tickets as well. So if you were to sell tickets at the price which is too low, these tickets will be resold at a much higher price.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd as a matter of fact, even though some people are saying that the ticket prices we have are high, they still end up on the resale market at an even higher price, more than double of our price.\u201d<\/p>\n

Infantino said that Fifa<\/a> received in excess of 500m ticket requests for 2026, compared with fewer than 50m combined for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. He added that 25% of tickets for the group phase were priced at under $300.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou cannot go to watch in the US a college game, not even speaking about a top professional game of a certain level, for less than $300,\u201d Infantino said. \u201cAnd this is the World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Wednesday morning tickets were available for the next home game for the New York Yankees, one of the most popular professional teams in the US, for as little as $11<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fifa\u2019s president, Gianni Infantino, has defended World Cup ticket prices, insisting that football\u2019s global governing body was obliged…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":569967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-569966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}