President Donald Trump is calling foul on the staggering cost of 2026 FIFA World Cup tickets. He blasted the $1,000 price tag for the US team’s opening match. The president also warned that working-class fans are being priced out of the game.
Donald Trump slams FIFA World Cup ticket prices
Speaking exclusively to The New York Post in a telephone interview, the president said he was unaware of the pricing scale until informed by journalists. The cheapest ticket for the US team’s June 12 match against Paraguay at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, currently stands at $1,079 on Ticketmaster.
“I did not know that number,” Donald Trump said. “I would certainly like to be there, but I wouldn’t pay it either, to be honest with you.” These comments came hours after FIFA president Gianni Infantino publicly defended the tournament’s pricing model. The latter has received mounting criticism from fan groups on both sides of the Atlantic.
The cost of attending this World Cup has soared well beyond previous editions. The average ticket for the final on July 19 at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium is nearly $13,000, compared with approximately $1600 for the 2022 championship match in Qatar. Resale listings for the final have reportedly exceeded $2 million, a figure Infantino acknowledged at the Milken Institute Global Conference on Tuesday. “We have to look at the market,” Infantino stated. “We are in the market in which entertainment is the most developed in the world, so we have to apply market rates.”
The FIFA chief, whose annual compensation reaches $6 million, argued that underpricing would simply fuel the secondary market. Trump, however, signalled that his administration could scrutinize the matter. “I haven’t seen that, but I would have to take a look at it,” he said when questioned about the pricing structure. “If people from Queens and Brooklyn and all of the people that love Donald Trump can’t go, I would be disappointed, but, you know, at the same time, it’s an amazing success.”
Trump did not specify what regulatory steps, if any, his administration might pursue.
Originally reported by Devanshi Basu on Mandatory.
