The 2026 FIFA World Cup is eight days away, and at long last, tickets are starting to look… reasonably priced?
Well, sort of. After FIFA’s initial ticket sales period — which made headlines for its exorbitant prices — came and went, the secondary market showed the prices in free fall, with costs down 24% across a 30-day period as of May 14th. Now, certain matches (like Canada’s home opener vs. Bosnia-Herzegovina) have dropped as low as 36% from the original face-value listings on FIFA’s official marketplace, and several matches (like Saudi Arabia vs. Cape Verde) show swaths of new seats added to secondary market inventory. So, what changed?
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One theory for the new supply of cheaper secondary market tickets, outlined below, is that FIFA realized they couldn’t sell a significant amount of tickets at face value, so they’re partnering with resale platforms like StubHub and SeatGeek and releasing batches of tickets there; it’s FIFA’s attempt to recoup some money without admitting they overpriced the games.
Granted, tickets for knockout matches and high profile group stage games like Colombia vs. Portugal in Miami remain highly-priced and, as far as we can tell, limited in supply. Still, after FIFA president and slimeball Gianni Infantino promised that every World Cup game would sell out despite the high price tag, the steady free fall of ticket costs on the secondary market shows that FIFA certainly missed the mark on using the dynamic pricing model and making face value tickets so unreasonably expensive.
The World Cup kicks off next week with Mexico vs. South Africa on June 11th; the tournament runs until July 19th. Pick up tickets for the 2026 FIFA World Cup here.
I believe we now have evidence of FIFA's World Cup ticketing shell game: FIFA is colluding with third-party resale platforms for its own supply management.
Look at this SeatGeek map (secondary market!) for Saudi Arabia vs Cape Verde. The circled areas are not random single… pic.twitter.com/qcqrp2SDa0
— Florian Ederer (@florianederer) June 2, 2026
