Soaring Prices Overshadow Record-Breaking World Cup
“I hope it will be affordable for everybody at the end of the day. I hope that ticket prices still come down. I understand why so many people are sceptical, but go there first and make up your...
“I tell you, it will go well. It will be a super event. That’s what they’re good at, the Americans. They know how to organise stuff.
“I hope it will be affordable for everybody at the end of the day. I hope that ticket prices still come down. I understand why so many people are sceptical, but go there first and make up your own mind.”
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That was former Germany striker Jürgen Klinsmann, speaking recently on the ‘Stick to Football’ podcast about how he expects the FIFA World Cup in the US, Canada and Mexico to unfold.
Klinsmann, who has called the US home since the early 2000s, may be seeing this tournament through a particularly optimistic lens.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino said the 2026 World Cup will be ‘ground breaking’
Set against war, inflation and even travel restrictions — as in the case of Somali referee Omar Artan — FIFA has projected enormous returns from the 2026 tournament, the biggest World Cup yet after the field expanded from 32 to 48 teams and the schedule grew to 104 matches.
In December 2025, the FIFA Council signed off on a record financial distribution of $727 million tied to the 2026 World Cup.
Prize money has jumped sharply, rising by 50% compared with the last World Cup in Qatar in 2022.
The champions will now collect $50 million, while the runners-up will take $30m, with payments descending to $9m apiece for teams finishing between 33rd and 48th.
Of the $727m approved, the lion’s share is the $655m earmarked for tournament prize money.
On top of that, teams received $1.5m to offset participation expenses, meaning every nation at this year’s World Cup is guaranteed at least $10.5m.
Mexican fans celebrate as they watch their team score against South Africa
Those eye-catching sums are still only a fraction of what FIFA expects this World Cup to generate, with football’s governing body forecasting $13 billion in revenue across this four-year World Cup cycle.
By comparison, the 2022 cycle in Qatar brought in $7.5bn, making it FIFA’s most lucrative World Cup ever — at least until the books close on 2026.
“The FIFA World Cup 2026 will also be ground breaking in terms of its financial contribution to the global football community,” FIFA President Gianni Infantino said.
After the final draw in December, Infantino went even further, calling it “the greatest event humanity has ever seen”.
“This is like 104 Super Bowls in one month — this is the magnitude of what we are organising,” he added.
Yet as Infantino and FIFA celebrate their record-sized showpiece, a more immediate question hangs over the tournament: what has this spectacle felt like for the fans actually attending it?
Ticket prices
Ticket prices have been a flashpoint for months in the run-up to this year’s World Cup.
For group-stage matches in the US, prices start at $600 (€518) and climb as high as $5,000 (€4,319).
And that is only for direct purchases. The resale section on FIFA’s official website paints a more complicated picture.
The Financial Times reported that nearly 180,000 tickets remain available for resale for group-stage matches, with more than 4,000 still listed for the US opener against Paraguay at the time of writing.
When South Korea beat the Czech Republic in the tournament’s second match, much of the conversation afterward centred on the visible empty seats inside Guadalajara’s Estadio Akron.
FIFA’s use of the widely criticised dynamic pricing model — and the resulting swings in ticket costs — has only deepened concerns.
South Korea players celebrate after defeating the Czech Republic in their opening game
Complaints that supporters had paid inflated prices, only to receive seats in a different section from the one they bought, also drew the attention of state officials.
At the end of May, FIFA was hit with a subpoena from New York and New Jersey as part of an investigation into its ticketing structure.
Texas joined that effort this week, with the Attorney General’s office opening its own inquiry into ticket sales for matches due to be played in Dallas and Houston.
“New Yorkers have been waiting years for the World Cup to come to their backyard, and they deserve a fair shot at affordable tickets,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement.
She added: “No one should be manipulated into paying sky-high prices for seats, and fans should be able to trust that the tickets they purchased will be the ones they receive.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton struck a similar note.
“I will work to ensure that FIFA is engaging in ethical and honest business practices so that Texas fans are treated fairly.
“Sports have a unique power to bring people together, and FIFA must understand that Texans take their competition — and their consumer right — seriously,” he said.
Iran’s players take part in a training session at their training base in Mexico
Beyond the stadium gates, geopolitics has also spilled into the ticketing controversy, with Iran saying the US revoked its ticket allocation just days before the tournament began.
Reuters reported that the Iranian federation (FFIRI) said it had already started selling tickets for its matches but was no longer able to provide them to supporters.
“This is despite the fact that many Iranian football fans, relying on the officially announced process, had already made the necessary plans to attend the matches,” the FFIRI said.
The federation added: “Depriving Iranian supporters of access to their lawful and official allocation of tickets is an action contrary to the spirit governing international competitions and the principle of equality among participating countries.
“This development raises serious questions about the interference of non-sporting and political considerations in the organisation of the world’s biggest football event.”
Under World Cup rules, each participating federation receives 8% of the tickets for each of its matches to distribute to supporters according to its own criteria.
Match day
For supporters who managed to land tickets — or pay heavily for them — the matchday experience now begins with a highly produced ceremony before kickoff.
In what FIFA has called a “bold new vision”, teams enter the pitch through their own dedicated arch.
As seen since the opening match at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico, every player then takes up position around the centre circle, facing the referee while the national anthems are played.
According to FIFA’s website, the “360-degree ceremony” is designed to involve every fan in the ground, regardless of where they are seated.
Later in the competition, FIFA says the pre-match production will grow to include elements such as coloured smoke and pyrotechnics.
“Having all players and referees face each other in the centre circle during the national anthems will create a moment of unity, pride and emotion that truly belongs to the teams and to everyone in the stadium.
“The FIFA World Cup is about every player and every fan, and this new pre-match ceremony reflects that,” Infantino said.
It is, in every sense, a distinctly Super Bowl-style flourish.
A view of FIFA’s new pre-match ceremony before matches kick off
The pageantry will peak at the final, where the World Cup will stage its first ever half-time show.
Shakira is set to perform alongside Madonna and K-Pop band BTS, a lineup that will almost certainly stretch the interval well beyond the usual 15 minutes.
With matches being played in intense heat, fans will at least be allowed to bring reusable water bottles, despite FIFA’s late attempt to ban them from stadiums.
That proposal drew widespread criticism, and FIFA reversed course a week before the tournament opened.
FIFA had originally said the ban was introduced “to prevent risk and injury to players and attendees”.
Supporters may now bring one factory-sealed, transparent 590ml bottle, instead of being forced to pay around $4 each time they need a drink in the hot conditions.
Vuvuzelas, though, remain prohibited after becoming one of the enduring — and divisive — sounds of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Transport
Even after securing a ticket and getting a water bottle past security, the cost of simply reaching the stadium remains another hurdle for fans.
Earlier this year, reports emerged that train fares across the US were rising ahead of the World Cup.
On the day of the final, a ticket from Penn Station in New York to MetLife Stadium will cost $98.
That fare had originally been set at $150 before being cut following another fan backlash.
Before the increase, the same trip would have cost $12.50.
US Senator Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, has said FIFA should step in.
“Charging more than 11 times the normal fare for a train ride is a rip off, plain and simple.
“FIFA is making billions from this World Cup,” he said in a statement after the original fare for the trip to New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium was announced.
“FIFA should cover the ride, not stick New York fans with the bill,” he said.
Now that the tournament is under way, Klinsmann may yet be proved right.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup could still turn into a super event. On spectacle and spending alone, it may end up being the most extravagant of the lot.
But his acknowledgment of the scepticism surrounding it also feels well founded.
What supporters want most is simple: to enjoy the biggest World Cup ever staged without feeling they were taken for a ride.
