Ticket listings on the official re-sale platform run by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), football’s global governing body, show some seats for the 2026 FIFA World Cup being offered for several times their original price, even though many tickets were only recently released after the main sales phase ended in January 2026. Okay News reports that the sharp increases are appearing on the same FIFA-backed marketplace meant to give fans a safer way to buy and sell tickets.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be staged across North America, with matches in Canada, Mexico and the United States. FIFA President Gianni Infantino had warned in recent weeks that tickets offered on re-sale sites could come with very high prices, and current listings on FIFA’s own platform have reinforced those concerns.
As of Wednesday, February 11, 2026, a “category three” seat, described as being in the highest section of the stands, for the opening match between Mexico and South Africa at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, Mexico, on Thursday, June 11, 2026, was listed at $5,324. The original price for that seat was $895.
Prices for the final were even higher. One “category three” seat for the World Cup final on Sunday, July 19, 2026, in East Rutherford, New Jersey, in the United States, was listed at $143,750, compared with its original price of $3,450. The lowest-priced ticket for the final on FIFA’s re-sale platform was listed at $9,775.
Not every listing showed an increase. A ticket for Austria’s group match against Jordan at Levi’s Stadium in California, in the United States, was listed at $552, below its original price of $620.
Some supporters say the numbers reflect a long-running problem in major sporting events, where buyers secure tickets mainly to sell them at a profit. “These exorbitant prices unfortunately don’t surprise me. It reflects what we know and what we fight against: many people buy to resell,” said Guillaume Aupretre, a spokesperson for “Irresistibles Francais”, a supporters group that follows the France national team and has nearly 2,500 members. “In the end, who pays the price? The passionate fans who end up with outrageous offers. We would prefer that this benefit real fans who come to support their team, but unfortunately, that’s not the case.”
FIFA says its platform is a fan-to-fan marketplace where sellers decide the amounts being charged, and FIFA earns a fee for providing the service. “Generally speaking, the pricing model adopted for FIFA World Cup 26 reflects the existing market practice for major entertainment and sporting events within our hosts on a daily basis, soccer included,” FIFA said in a statement. “This is also a reflection of the treatment of the secondary market for tickets, which has a distinct legal treatment than in many other parts of the world. We are focused on ensuring fair access to our game for existing but also prospective fans.”
The rules around re-sale vary across the host countries. The secondary ticket market is not regulated in the United States and Canada. In Mexico, selling a ticket above face value is prohibited, but only when the ticket was bought in Mexico using the local currency.
Ticket pricing has become a major flashpoint for fans’ groups, including Football Supporters Europe (FSE), which has accused FIFA of a “monumental betrayal” over the wider pricing approach. FIFA has responded by making a limited number of tickets available to official supporters groups at $60, although critics argue that the reduced-price option is too small to solve the broader problem.
FIFA has also continued its standard sales process alongside the re-sale market. The organisation has been notifying applicants since Thursday, February 5, 2026, on whether they were successful in the second sales phase, which ended in January 2026. FIFA says it will run a final “last-minute” sales period from April 2026 until the tournament ends, using a first-come, first-served system. FIFA also says it uses variable pricing during its official sales phases, where prices can change based on demand and availability, while stressing that it does not automatically adjust prices in real time.
