For Gianni Infantino, it is “absolutely crazy”. The president of the International Football Federation (FIFA) announced, Monday, December 29, that 150 million ticket requests had been recorded to date for the Men’s World Cup, organized from June 11 to July 19, 2026 in the United States, Canada and Mexico. “In the almost hundred-year history of the World Cup, FIFA has sold a total of 44 million tickets. So in two weeks… we could have filled three hundred years of World Cups. Just imagine! »rejoiced the Italian-Swiss leader during the World Sports Summit in Dubai.
The requests come mainly from American supporters, followed by the Germans and the British, said Mr. Infantino. “What is essential is that the revenue generated by these tickets goes back to football around the world”he estimated.
The challenge is to justify the inflation of ticket prices, the origin of a controversy which has continued to grow for two weeks. On December 11, six days after the draw for the first phase of the tournament, carried out in Washington (DC), FIFA revealed the prices of places reserved for groups of fans. Prices up very sharply compared to those charged in Qatar in 2022.
Followers of the Blues will thus have to pay between 191 euros and 604 euros for a group match, between 586 and 1,240 euros for a quarter, and from 3,601 euros to 7,466 euros for a final, according to Les Irrésistibles Français, the main group of supporters of the selection.
Tickets at 60 dollars
The Football Supporters Europe association, for its part, asked FIFA to “immediately suspend ticket sales” reserved for followers “the most faithful” and “review prices”. Faced with this dissatisfaction, the body decided to launch a tranche of tickets at 60 dollars (around 51 euros) for the 104 matches of the competition. The latter must, depending on the instance, be “awarded specifically to supporters of qualified teams, with the selection and distribution process managed individually by the member associations”.
« We have 6 to 7 million tickets on sale… In two weeks, we have received 150 million requests, or 10 million per day. This shows how powerful the World Cup isinsisted Gianni Infantino, on Monday. Without FIFA, there would be no football in 150 countries around the world. »
