Posted on 4th March 2026
FIFA boss defends World Cup surge pricing
FIFA president Gianni Infantino has told the media that tickets at this summer’s World Cup will be subject to surge pricing whilst defending the practice, leading to criticism from supporter groups and consumer organisations.
In an interview with American television network CNBC, Infantino boasted about the “absolutely incredible” demand for tickets at this summer’s tournament, claiming FIFA has received 508m requests for the 7m seats available throughout the tournament.
“In four weeks, we have requests for a thousand years of World Cup,” he told CNBC. “We have received ticket requests from over 200 countries over the world. Everyone wants to be part of something special.
“The prices have been fixed, but in the US in particular there is a thing called dynamic pricing meaning the price will go up or down.
Football Supporters Europe and the European consumer organisation Euroconsumers criticised Infantino’s remarks, saying it was a u-turn on promises from FIFA last year that ticket sales would not be subject to surge pricing.
“That’s part of the market that we are in,” the FIFA president said. “Prices for some matches will go up. It’s not a problem in the sense that the demand is there… The price is a consequence of that.”
Both organisations met with FIFA representatives in October 2025 and were told then the practice would not be used for ticket sales at the summer’s World Cup.
“Football is a shared cultural experience, not a testing ground for revenue-maximisation,” said Els Bruggeman, head of policy and enforcement at Euroconsumers. “When there is no competition and no alternative for consumers, dynamic pricing becomes fundamentally unfair. Fans are not revenue targets.”
Back in October FIFA also revealed its pre-sale general admission ticket prices for the World Cup across the US, Canada and Mexico and it became immediately clear this would be the most expensive tournament for matchgoing fans in the tournament’s history.
Group stage tickets alone are up to five times the price of those for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. The New York Times reported the vast majority of 2026 World Cup tickets are set to cost hundreds of dollars, and most upper-deck seats at the final will cost either $2,790 or $4,210.
“FIFA has imposed dynamic ticket pricing on most tickets, meaning that ordinary supporters are being exposed to demand-driven price surges and exploitative practices. Ticketing policies like these have no place in football,” said Stuart Dykes, director of European and institutional affairs at Football Supporters Europe.
