FIFA president Gianni Infantino defended ticket prices for the 2026 World Cup, and welcomed any investigation as U.S. states look into alleged unethical practices from the organization.
Infantino said “a lot of analysis, a lot of work, a lot of experts” went into how FIFA dictated prices, and the revenue it gets from tickets helps invest in all participating nations.
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“As FIFA president, I have the statutory responsibility to generate the income which allows FIFA to invest in all of these countries, where otherwise nobody would invest,” Infantino told reporters in Mexico City on Wednesday, June 10. “If nobody thinks of them, well, we do. It would be irresponsible if we don’t generate the right revenues in this market.”
One of the biggest criticisms of the tournament have been the cost to attend matches, resulting in World Cup excitement petering out as many soccer fans didn’t expect prices to be so high. FIFA has been using dynamic pricing for tickets, meaning the cost fluctuates based on demand and decreases when demand goes down.
So far, the demand has been high. Infantino said it reached unprecedented levels “by a factor of 10 or more” for the 2026 edition.
With the demand, Infantino argued ticket prices started at $60, and the average cost of just under $500 was “the lowest of the American sports.” Still, it doesn’t hide the fact that a large chuck of tickets have cost upward of $1,000, including the whopping $32,970 price tag from premium seats for the final.
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More: What is dynamic pricing, and how will it work at 2026 World Cup?
Infantino argued if prices were sold at lower prices, they would still be much higher on the secondary market and wouldn’t go back to funding its alleged development of soccer around the world. So in his eyes, the prices have been at the right levels.
“We want to bring the World Cup to every football fan, and this is what this price structure is. It’s what dynamic pricing is as well. We had the Club World Cup last year, the prices of some matches went up, others went down,” Infantino said. “In this situation, they could have gone down as well. They didn’t really go down. This shows that maybe the price point was the right one.”
U.S. officials demand answers on World Cup tickets
Attorney generals in states such as California, New York, New Jersey and Texas have either opened up investigations or expressed concern to FIFA over ticket issues.
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California Attorney General Rob Bonta asked FIFA for information “to assess potential violations of California law,” while officials in Texas, New York and New Jersey have also alleged FIFA misled fans about the location and quality of seats after tickets were bought. Fans have voiced they ended up getting seats that didn’t match up with stadium maps.
Despite the legal threats, Infantino said FIFA is “very relaxed” about it because the organization checked with “the best lawyers, with the best experts” to handle its ticketing system.
“We welcome every investigation. We are happy to present everything and we are happy to make our case. But what is most important in all of that is that every dollar that we generate goes back into football,” he said.
Some U.S. officials have tried to help those unable to afford ticket prices. New York mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a lottery in May offering 1,000 tickets to residents priced at $50 for games at MetLife Stadium. Infantino applauded Mamdani for the effort, but pondered why FIFA didn’t “get great news” when it put out 130,000 tickets for $60.
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Infantino noted FIFA has sold over 6 million tickets for the World Cup and they remain on sale. He added there also tickets still not sold by FIFA for the knockout rounds since advancing teams don’t know where they will play yet.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: FIFA’s Gianni Infantino defends high World Cup ticket prices
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