FIFA's official selling platform lists World Cup final tickets for $2.3 million

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Martin Macdonald | Author

FIFA's official ticket resale platform has listed four World Cup final tickets for the cool price of $2.3 million (£1.7m) each.

In addition to the participation of Iran in the tournament due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East with the United States and Israel, the World Cup headlines pre-tournament have been dominated by financial concerns, particularly for supporters.

On average, a group stage match at the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico is around three times more expensive than the group stage in Qatar in 2022.

The cheapest ticket for the World Cup final at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey is $4,185 – more than seven times the cost of the cheapest 2022 World Cup final ticket.

FIFA have introduced dynamic pricing for the tournament, which means increased demand leads to inflated prices.

The Football Supporters' Association (FSA) previously described the pricing as "scandalous".

While supporters baulked at prices going into the thousands, then hundreds of thousands, we have now reached the dreaded £1m mark.

FIFA's official "resale/exchange marketplace" platform for final match on 19 July shows four seats available for $2,299,998.85..

Buying all four of those tickets for the game at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, would set you back a quite outrageous $9.2m.

FIFA does not set the prices on resale items but they do hold a 15% commission on any tickets resold which means that, if someone were to buy those extravagantly expensive tickets, FIFA would receive a commission of $600,000.

In every single World Cup prior to this one, tickets on official resale platforms matched the original, face-value price.

A FIFA spokesperson said: "FIFA has established a ticket sales and secondary market model that reflects standard ticket market practices for major sporting and entertainment events across the host countries.

"The applicable resale facilitation fees are aligned with industry standards across North American sports and entertainment sectors.

"FIFA's variable pricing ticketing approach aligns with industry trends across various sports and entertainment sectors, where price adaptations are made to optimise sales and attendance and ensure a fair market value for events."

Infantino defends World Cup ticket prices

FIFA president Gianni Infantino previously brushed aside these criticisms by outlining the numbers of ticket requests FIFA has received for the tournament.

"We have six to seven million tickets on sale and in 15 days we received 150 million ticket requests," the FIFA president said at the World Sports Summit in Dubai in December.

"So 10 million ticket requests every single day. It shows how powerful the World Cup is.

"In the almost 100 years of the World Cup, Fifa has sold 44 million tickets in total. So, in two weeks we could have filled 300 years of World Cups. Imagine that. This is absolutely crazy."

He also insisted that the money earned from ticket sales will be reinvested in the infrastructure of the game all over the world.

"What's crucial is that the revenues that are generated from this are going back to the game all over the world," Infantino explained.

"Without Fifa there would be no football in 150 countries in the world. There is football because, and thanks to, these revenues we generate with, and from, the World Cup which we reinvest all over the world."

This week, it was confirmed that the United States' opening match against Paraguay on 13 is currently being outsold by New Zealand versus Iran at the same venue due to the inflated prices of the USMNT match.

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