New York mayoral candidate takes on FIFA over World Cup ticket prices

Martin Macdonald

• 23 Oct 2025 08:31 CDT
• 5 min read

News

New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has pleaded with FIFA to lower ticket prices for the 2026 World Cup and to remove the dynamic pricing system in place which allows for prices to soar due to demand.

The 2026 World Cup will take place in the United States, Canada and Mexico and the final of the tournament will take place at the MetLife Stadium just a few miles outside New York in the state of New Jersey.

Fans planning to attend matches at the competition have been left 'astonished' by the exorbitant prices being charged.

FIFA recently began sales for the upcoming tournament in the US, Mexico and Canada by informing the select few who had been chosen in its 'first ticket lottery' that they could proceed with purchasing entry to games.

However, the lucky ones who managed to gain access soon realised that the $60 tickets FIFA had been promoting were few and far between. Instead, most prices were in the hundreds and even thousands.

Split into four pricing categories depending on the location of the seat, the cost for group stage games ranged from $60 to $620. Ticket prices for the final at MetLife Stadium reached as high as $6,730, with even Category 4 spots going for as much as $2,030, according to The Athletic.

Since then, FIFA has opened an official secondary market in the US and Canada, and prices have skyrocketed even further due to the governing body charging a 15 per cent commission and not implementing a cap.

Tickets have also hit third-party sellers. At the time of writing, upscale final seats at MetLife Stadium are being listed for as much as $537,752 on Stubhub. The cheapest ticket currently costs $6,886.

Mamdani stands up for working class fans

Mamdani, who is the favourite to be named the next Mayor of New York City, believes the prices are leaving working class fans out in the cold.

"I’ve spoken to a number of New Yorkers who tried to buy tickets, and it wasn’t only an issue of just how unaffordable the tickets were, but also just the mess of that system," he told the Athletic.

"There’s a desperate need for more clarity and for more of a commitment that this be a tournament for people who already call the city home.

“Sport has been so commercialised and corporatised that fans have become viewed as a commodity. It is the place of leaders to step up when we see profit as the only motive, to an extent where so many who used to attend these very events can now not even conceive of doing so.”

Mamdani has started an official petition to football's governing body to low the ticket prices and overhaul the purchasing system.

“What I’m asking for in my petition is all precedented," he explained.

"This is how FIFA has operated in the past. These are demands to simply return to the ways in which they engaged with previous World Cups.

"We have become numb to the continued commodification of the game, where asking FIFA to just do what they’re doing in Mexico [prohibiting ticket resales] is seen as an audacious request.”

2026 World Cup issues

It is not only ticket prices that have emerged as an issue for fans hoping to go to the World Cup.

Visa Delays

President Donald Trump's crackdown on immigration is in the news every single day and stricter border controls will have an effect on travelling fans.

When the 2026 host nations were confirmed, Trump confirmed that "all eligible athletes, officials and fans from all countries around the world would be able to enter the United States without discrimination".

That is the case...for some.

Fans from the United Kingdom and the EU will be able to travel without a Visa due to the Visa Waiver programme. However, that initiative hasn't extended to fans from Asia, Africa and South America, all of whom will need to apply for an official Visa to travel to the tournament.

Unfortunately, there is no department specifically designated for World Cup travellers so those applying for a Visa must do it along with every single other person looking to travel to the United States over the next year.

Applications can take as long as a year to be confirmed or rejected and they usually require a face-to-face interview held at an American embassy.

Qatar and Russia implemented a Visa fast-track programme for the last two World Cups but the USA decided against that.

Political unrest as violence spreads

The United States is undoubtedly involved in a political storm at the moment due to a number of factors.

Currently, the deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers throughout the country has led to mass protests and thousands upon thousands of arrests, with violence often breaking out at these demonstrations.

Trump has deployed National Guard troops in Democrat-led cities, including Los Angeles, which will host eight matches.

The president previously threatened to take World Cup matches away from cities that he deemed to be "unsafe".

"There is no question the divisions in the United States are considerable," says Daniel Byman, director of the Warfare, Irregular Threats, and Terrorism Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"On different issues, depending on the day, the president or some of his key people are trying to push a more polarised agenda. There is a lot of anger.

"With the Trump administration, there are lot of 'we don't know' answers in terms of security, because they don't yet have much of a track record for big events.

"There has been a pretty steady dismantling of a lot of the government agencies - cuts at the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI. With that comes not only loss of people, but loss of institutional knowledge.

"There are lots of individuals who can be disruptive and dangerous. And the United States, of course, has ready access to firearms in a way that most countries do not."

In 2024, there were 500 mass shootings in the United States. In 2025, there have been 341, which is another major cause for concern for travelling fans.