football
FIFA: More than half a billion ticket requests for the World Cup
Despite the criticism of high ticket prices, according to FIFA, there is great interest in tickets for the World Cup – including from Germany. The world association gives details of what will happen next.
Despite criticism from fans about high prices, the world football association FIFA says it recorded more than half a billion ticket requests for the 2026 World Cup in the most recent sales phase. FIFA announced that most of the applications came from Germany, behind the three host countries USA, Mexico and Canada.
The sales phase ran from December 11th until last Tuesday. For the first time, individual tickets were available for specific games and teams in the group phase. Fans should now be informed whether they have received tickets in a random drawing until February 5th at the earliest. Anyone who was not successful in this phase will have another opportunity to purchase tickets in a further sales phase. This lasts until the end of the tournament.
FIFA boss Infantino raves
“Half a billion ticket applications in just over a month is not only enormous demand, but a global statement,” said FIFA President Gianni Infantino.
FIFA announced a new ticket price category for “loyal fans” during the current sales phase, responding to global protests against the high prices. The so-called base rank for fans applies to all 48 World Cup participants and all games in the tournament in Canada, Mexico and the USA from June 11th to July 19th.
Small number of cheap tickets
However, the cheaper prices are only available for a small number of tickets: Germany, like all other teams, has eight percent of the tickets available per game for the fan block. According to FIFA, ten percent of these tickets will then be in the new basic rank. According to the German Football Association, there would be 581 tickets against Curaçao in the group phase, 395 against Ivory Coast and 632 against Ecuador.
The international fan association Football Supporters Europe welcomed the world association’s move, but continued to criticize, among other things, the small number of tickets affected.
Germany will play its group games in Houston, Toronto and in the final arena in East Rutherford near New York. The opening game against Curaçao will kick off on June 14th at 12:00 p.m. local time (7:00 p.m. CEST) in the Houston Stadium. The second game on June 20 against Ivory Coast will take place in Toronto, Canada – kick-off is at 4:00 p.m. local time (10:00 p.m. CEST). The group final against Ecuador will be played in the final stadium on June 25th, also at 4 p.m. US time, again 10 p.m. in Germany.
dpa
