WORLD CUP 2026
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What is happening with World Cup ticket prices?
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Fifa promised a sold-out World Cup but there are still tickets available for over half the games
By
Dale Johnson
Football issues correspondent
- Published
3 hours ago
- Published
Fifa promised the event would be sold out, but there are thousands of tickets available for sale across several platforms.
BBC Sport has found tickets for matches involving the smaller nations are now available well below face value - across Fifa's own resale site and secondary marketplaces.
World football's governing body has itself been accused of dumping inventory it now cannot sell on SeatGeek.
So just how 'sold out' are the matches? Will we see a repeat of last summer's Club World Cup when tickets were sold off at knock-down prices to fill stadiums?
Could the biggest World Cup ever see swathes of empty seats?
World Cup tickets - what do we know?
When it comes to Fifa and World Cup tickets it might be easier to frame this as what we don't know.There has been so much secrecy that it seems impossible to be certain what a fair and reasonable price for a World Cup ticket truly is.
Only last week, the attorneys general of New York and New Jersey officially launched an investigation into Fifa's ticket practices.
Football's governing body was subpoenaed to answer allegations of "artificially inflating prices" and "misleading fans".
The ticket buying process has been like a game of pin the tail on the donkey, one where you do not know how much it costs to play.
According to the subpoena, some fans who were successful and paid for tickets in one price category were ultimately issued tickets of a lower value further away from the pitch.
Even those who won in the ballot did so with the blindfold on - at no stage was a pricing structure published. The astronomical price of tickets only became clear when fans were asked to pay.
Fifa deployed variable pricing, rather than dynamic pricing, which sees prices changed at each sales point based on previous demand.
Fifa's final, open sales window began in April. At the time it said that more tickets could be released right up to kick off.
But for which matches? When? And at what prices?
Stadium maps were altered and more expensive categories added, of which supporters were unaware.
These were usually in the first few rows and priced about 50% higher than the seats behind them.
They were not made available to fans in the ballot period.
The attorneys general claimed it was all part of a deliberate attempt to withhold information and leave fans guessing about how they could buy tickets.
- Fifa ordered to explain World Cup ticket pricing
- Published
27 May
- Published
- Published
20 May
- Published
How sold out is the World Cup?
"Every match is already sold out," Fifa president Gianni Infantino said in February. "We keep some tickets back for some last-minute sales, of course, but every match is sold out."Like most things about this World Cup, the reality appears to be different.
Fifa should not have a problem selling out the games featuring the marquee teams - Argentina, Brazil, England, Germany and Spain, to name a few.
We should be able to say the same about the host nations, but Fifa has priced these games so highly that only two of the nine matches featuring Canada, Mexico or the United States are officially sold out.
Even the opening match between Mexico and South Africa still has over 500 seats left on Fifa's face value site - though they will cost you $2,273 (£1,725) each.
Fifa's issue is the games featuring countries which do not have wider appeal - matches like Bosnia-Herzegovina v Qatar, Cape Verde v Saudi Arabia and Congo DR v Uzbekistan.
So how many games are truly sold out?
TicketData, an independent site which tracks major sporting events in the United States, has painted an intriguing picture.
It suggests that on Saturday there were close to 74,000 tickets available across 86 of the 104 matches.
This will be only part of the story. There are thousands more on Fifa's own resale site, genuine availability but at an even higher price - many likely bought to make a profit with no intention of attending the game.
Then something strange seemed to happen.
Within a few hours, TicketData reported that the number of tickets on Fifa's face value site dropped by more than half to about 32,000. By Tuesday, this had fallen to 22,000 with 66 games on sale.
Had there really been a late flurry of demand for these games?
Is Fifa trying to offload tickets on secondary ticket sites?
Fifa has been eager to push fans to its own resale site. And you can imagine why, considering they take 15% from both the buyer and the seller.
On its FAQ page,, external world football's governing body says it "strongly encourages you to purchase all types of tickets" through its official platforms.
Fifa also warns that tickets bought via other routes "may be invalid and may be subject to cancellation without notice".
But on Tuesday, shortly after the inventory on Fifa's own site fell, the availability on SeatGeek appeared to increase markedly.
Not just random, single seats but batches of seats in rows of specific blocks.
This was highlighted on social media, and within 24 hours the availability on SeatGeek seemed to decrease again.
TicketData says that on Wednesday the number of tickets on Fifa's own site jumped back up to 37,000.
It is impossible to verify who listed the tickets, and why. Or why the numbers changed on the Fifa site.
As well as SeatGeek, there are thousands of listings on sites such as StubHub and VividSeats.
Anyone can make listings on these external sites, and the tickets themselves might not even exist.
SeatGeek has denied any direct role but this does not mean Fifa, or one of its partners, could not be operating and listing independently.
A statement read: "SeatGeek is a trusted marketplace that gives fans secure access to tickets across tens of thousands of live events, including the World Cup. We do not have a partnership or distribution agreement with Fifa."
Fifa has been approached for comment but, as has been the case throughout the ticket sales process, no response has been received.
There are other indicators on SeatGeek, too.
Rather than the cost of seats being random, they seem to be set at regular, incremental prices row by row - getting more expensive the closer you get to the front.
Looking at two blocks behind the goal for Uzbekistan v Congo DR, there are 60 listings of multiple tickets priced between $250 (£190) and $296 (£225) across blocks 102 and 103.
When Fifa released its more expensive 'front' tickets in April, it sent a clear message that it felt the closer you were to the pitch, the more valuable the ticket was.
The price increases by a few dollars, row by row. All priced well below the face value of $380 (£289).
So either a lot of people are losing a lot of money, or it is a plan to shift inventory.
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Regular, incremental pricing row by row on a secondary marketplace could indicate deliberate, structured policy listed by the same company or individual
So why would Fifa allegedly be trying to sell on these sites?
Fifa is just like any other promoter. The last thing it wants is loads of unoccupied seats - not just for the optics but also because any empty seat means a value of $0.
The figures show that fans are not prepared to pay the high prices for tickets for the less desirable games.
BBC Sport picked out five matches which would expected to see a lower level of demand, and found that tickets in the more desirable lower bowl seats are now well below face value.
Jordan v Algeria in Santa Clara showed the greatest fall.
Two tickets comparable in block 121 with a face value of $620 (£471) could be bought for £171 on Fifa's own resale site - 64% cheaper.
On SeatGeek, the tickets were listed for £192, and £172 on StubHub.
For the Czech Republic v South Africa, tickets for block 122 with a face value of £342 were below £190 on SeatGeek and StubHub.
This suggests Fifa cannot get the high face value on its own site, leading to the speculation it is trying to sell the tickets elsewhere - without reducing the prices itself.
And, after tickets for Chelsea's Club World Cup quarter-final against Palmeiras dropped to just £8.17 ($11.15), the prices may still be some way from bottoming out.
Read earlier they’ve emailed some people who had tickets for a match in Toronto saying they’ve accidentally paid too low a price so their tickets have been voided.
The good news is they have seven days to get first dibs at the new price.
Wonder if they’d rather not reduce the half-empty games on the day and set a precedent. If stories emerge of people getting in for $30 it’ll spread and people will hold out for the real dud matches.
How Cornish miners brought football to Mexico
- Published2 June 2026
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Image source,Eduardo HernandezByHenry Cowling
BBC Sport journalist
Inside the 25,000-seater Estadio Hidalgo in east-central Mexico, fans unfurl a tifo featuring a miner.
In one hand he wields a pickaxe and the other a pastry with a distinctly crimped edge.
He is flanked by two flags, both the same - black with a white cross.
To anyone with a knowledge of the United Kingdom's southernmost county, this figure is instantly recognisable as Cornish.
The fans of CF Pachuca, widely recognised as Mexico's first football club, are paying tribute to their roots.
They are celebrating the story of how miners from Cornwall played their part in introducing the game to what has become one of the world's most passionate footballing nations, and one of this year's World Cup co-hosts.
The transatlantic connection between Hidalgo and Cornwall starts all the way back in 1824.
Mexico's mining sector, which had been the bedrock of the country's economic success, was in ruins after a decade-long war that resulted in independence from Spain.
Its plight caught the eye of a mining engineer called John Taylor, who had been investing in Cornish mining with great success, particularly in the village of Gwennap.
"He had taken a group of failing and flooded mines and turned them into a success and he looked at the mines of Real del Monte and thought, 'I can do the same there'," Cornish mining migration specialist Dr Sharron Schwartz tells BBC Sport.
His involvement led to hundreds of Cornishmen going back and forth between Cornwall and Hidalgo in the coming decades.
With this migration came a sharing of ideas, culture - and, of course, sport.
The first reference on record to Cornish miners playing sport in Hidalgo is actually about cricket.
In the late 1850s, before Association Football rules had been decided back in England, Cornish native and mining magnate Frank Rule set up a cricket team in Pachuca.
"The football clubs came out of the cricket clubs," Dr Schwartz explains.
"In fact some of them were interchangeable and the cricketers were the footballers."
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Frank Rule was known as in Hidalgo as 'the silver king' for his role in the state's mining trade
The first mention of a football team in Pachuca came in 1892, with a local newspaper article reporting on a reorganisation of the team due to a "schism".
"There had been a rift between those in Pachuca and 'the mountain men', meaning those in Real del Monte.
"When I read this I laughed, I thought 'how Cornish'. The Cornish love a schism.
"They were told to get their acts together and make their team stronger."
In 1895, there was a meeting held by Rule that led to the decision to amalgamate the Pachuca Cricket Club, the Pachuca Football Club and the Velasco Cricket Club to create a stronger entity.
Thus was formed Pachuca Athletic Club.
Rule donated a piece of land near his hacienda for the club to host games, on the condition that games would not be played on a Sunday because of his Methodist beliefs.
By 1902, other clubs had started to pop up in areas such as Orizaba in Veracruz.
To this day Orizaba contest the view that Pachuca were the first club in Mexico, and claim that title as their own.
These two clubs, as well three others, came together to create the first recognised football league in Mexico, the Liga Mexicana de Football Amateur Association.
Orizaba won the first league title in 1902, with Pachuca having some success of their own in the early seasons, winning the title in 1904-05.
It was not just the mining men enjoying the football on the pitch - Cornish women were also a key part of the matchday spectacle.
"They loved to turn out [for matches] and often wore the club colours," says Dr Schwartz.
"The first reference to pasties being consumed [in Mexico] was when play stopped in a cricket match. I can imagine those were cooked by the Cornish ladies."
Pasties were an essential for miners at the time, with their thick crust acting as a 'handle' for dirty hands and pastry tough enough to survive being dropped down a mineshaft.
The constant stream of people going between Hidalgo and Cornwall led to a bizarre shared culture thousands of miles apart, with Dr Schwartz saying it was common to hear Spanish spoken as widely as English in bars in Redruth and Camborne.
Antony Martin, whose great uncle William Bray was one of Pachuca's prominent players in the early 1900s, says Bray's siblings brought some Mexican customs back to England with them.
"They used to have bread with every meal, which is a Mexican thing, and put cayenne pepper on everything. Absolutely everything. They both still spoke Spanish," says Martin.
"But I remember my grandmother and great aunt were so proud of Cornwall and everything to do with Cornwall, yet until they were teenagers they'd spent their whole lives in Mexico in Pachuca."
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Pachuca's team in 1903-04, including William Bray (front row, far right)
Pachuca welcomed their first Mexican player to the squad in 1908, with David Islas invited to join the side by the son of a Cornish miner from St Blazey named Alf Crowle.
Crowle, who became player-manager, was hailed for breaking down ethnic and social barriers, with Dr Schwarz adding: "He's probably Cornish-Pachuca's most famous son, as far as football goes."
In the early 1920s, many people in Pachuca, including Crowle, moved away in the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution, causing the football club to lose many of its players.
Pachuca played their last tournament in the 'amateur era' of the Mexican game in 1922, with the original club folding soon after.
A new version of the club was reformed in 1950, before folding once more and then reforming again in 1960.
The club have since gone on to do big things, including winning seven Mexican league titles and the Copa Sudamericana in 2006.
Pachuca fan Eduardo Hernandez says the club's heritage is important to fans.
"The club is very proud of it. We were founded by miners and they brought the football to us. People are aware of that."
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Alfred Crowle (middle row, centre) invited the first Mexican player to play for Pachuca, David Islas (front row, second from right)
The club's nickname 'Los Tuzos', translates to 'the gophers', referring to a burrowing rodent found in North and Central America and serving as a nod to their mining heritage.
"It's part of our identity. You can find the word around Pachuca, for example our bus is called 'Tuzobus'.
"Everything is 'tuzo' around here. It's part of what we are."
He adds that Pachuca and Real del Monte still have shops selling pasties, or pastes as they are known in Mexico, with Cornish flags visible in the most traditional stores in Real del Monte.
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Pachuca won the Copa Sudamericana in 2006
Real del Monte also hosts the annual International Pasty Festival, which has been held in the town since 2009, and a pasty museum.
Pasties are very much part of matchdays in Hidalgo, although the Mexican versions traditionally contain beef and vegetables, like their Cornish counterpart, but with added chilli.
"It's our most traditional dish here in Pachuca. If you don't have much time, there's always a pastes store around the corner," Hernandez says.
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King Charles III visited Real del Monte's pasty museum in 2014
Back in Cornwall, while grassroots football is part of the weekly agenda, the county is not best known for its footballing exports.
But Kernow FA, who are a 'football alliance' that represent Cornwall at international level, want to put on a game between their Cornish team and Pachuca in Mexico to inspire the county's football going forward.
Mexico, meanwhile, will this summer become the first nation to have hosted a men's World Cup on three separate occasions.
"In every World Cup, we're the fans who bring the most colour and energy to the tournament, and being at home it has to be even better," Mexico's second all-time leading goalscorer and former Pachuca striker Jared Borgetti says.
"We want the world to realise what we Mexicans are like."
If there's one thing the transatlantic cousins of Cornwall and Hidalgo will have in common this summer, it's that they'll be enjoying the World Cup with a pasty - or paste - in hand.
Still outrageously overpriced. FIFA having the brass neck to recall 'underpriced' tickets shows what blatant scammers they are. Let's hope there are thousands of empty seats at many matches to embarrass the greedy c*nts...
Scotland fans 'heartbroken' as travel permits to World Cup withdrawn last minute
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Scotland fan Scott Braid was due to travel to the US with his family - but his travel documents have been changed last minute
ByMegan Bonar and Ben Philip, BBC Scotland
- Published
4 hours ago
- Published
UK citizens who want to go to the United States for up to 90 days without a visa need to apply to the country's Electronic System for Travel Authorization (Esta).
But dozens of fans who filled out the form have said on social media that their application status had changed this week from "approved" to "travel not authorised".
Some have told BBC Scotland News they could lose out on thousands of pounds in travel costs due to the changes, with Scotland's first World Cup game kicking off in less than two weeks.
'Out of the blue'
Scott Braid, 43, from Kirkcaldy, was due to fly out to Boston on 12 June with his wife and two kids.He applied for his Esta and once it was approved he thought he was "good to go" and booked the "once-in-a-lifetime trip".
He told BBC Scotland News: "Out of the blue on Tuesday, I got an email that said there's been an update on your Esta status."
He said it had moved from approved to pending and two hours later it changed to "travel not authorised".
Scott said he is especially frustrated given that he had a previous Esta that expired in 2024, and he travelled to America in 2023 with no issues.
"Since I've done that ESTA there's been absolutely no changes to my circumstances," he said. "That's the frustrating thing, not knowing why this has happened."
Scott said he is encouraging his family to go ahead with the trip in the hope he will be able to join them part-way through after securing a visa appointment in Belfast next week.
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Screenshots show the application was approved before being revoked
The same thing happened to brothers Andrew and Nelson Speirs, also from Kirkcaldy.
Nelson said they applied for their Esta on 14 December, and they were approved the next day. The form stayed that way until 3 June when it was updated to say they were not allowed to travel.
"It's not given us very much time to do anything about it," he told BBC Scotland News.
If my buddies from down-under are in it, me too if space permits (assuming no cost involved).
We are off to Vancouver June 8th to watch two World Cup matches at BC Place with my friend of 50 years, Mario. He sold me a 1967 red MGB Roadster for $500 in 1976 and friends ever since..
June 13 - Australia vs Turkey
June 21 - New Zealand v Egypt (Chris Wood vs Mohammed Salah matchup should be interesting)
We’re full sadly and even worse my random sweepstake generator gave all of us crap teams. Poor Kiwi got Iraq.
Dark horses
Although they couldn't beat Iran the last time they met in the 80s
Apparently it was a draw
New Zealand v England tomorrow morning
Still not decided wether I can be arsed enough to get out of bed for it or not
Still not decided wether I can be arsed enough to get out of bed for it or not
I will watch it as ‘er indoors is at her mum’s and I’ve got an early start tomorrow but fully expect to fall asleep on the couch at half time.
Thought you’ve said that you wouldn’t get out of bed for anything less than $10,000 a day!
