Fifa president says current edition has received “the request for 1,000 years of World Cups at once”
Gianni Infantino has leaped once more to the defence of ticket prices for the upcoming 2026 World Cup in the US, Mexico and Canada.
The Fifa president made a speech to world leaders at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland on Thursday and appeared to dismiss criticism that the World Cup tickets are too expensive for fans.
Fifa’s ticket pricing has been described as outrageous and provoked protests from fan associations across Europe. Costs for all ticket categories have seen at least a six-times increase from the average over the last 16 years, with the final costing thousands of dollars.
But Infantino said the demand Fifa is now receiving for tickets, even from regions that have previously protested, justifies the prices.
“We were hammered – I was hammered, I should say – because of the ticket prices, because they are so expensive,” Infantino said. “And the main critics were from Germany and England, of course. Now, No 1 in ticket requests is the US. No 2, Germany, No 3, England, because everyone wants to come and to participate.”
After Fifa’s latest application window for tickets, which ended on 13 January, the world football governing body announced it had received over 500 million requests for tickets, even given the current costs.
“This is incredible, but it shows really the impact that it has,” Infantino said. “To give you another number, to compare this in 100 years of World Cup history, Fifa has sold around 50 million tickets in total. For this World Cup, in these four weeks we have the request for 1,000 years of World Cups at once.”
