WASHINGTON.- The 104 games of North America World Cup 2026 will be played “with tickets sold out,” said this Wednesday the president of the FIFA, Gianni Infantinoin a television interview.
“The demand is there. Every game is sold out,” the manager told the American network CNBC and specified that “some tickets have still been reserved for last minute sales.”
Last month the second phase of ticket sales for the World Cup closed. USA, Mexico and Canadawhich starts on June 11.
“508 million requests were registered in four weeks for around seven million available tickets, coming from more than 200 countries around the world,” said Infantino.
“We have never seen anything like this, it is incredible,” celebrated the boss of world football’s governing body.
The “last minute” ticket sales phase, he noted, will begin in April and run through the tournament final on July 19.
Infantino also defended himself against criticism over the price of tickets, described as “exorbitant” by fan associations, and which has reached maximum levels on resale websites.
“It is as if in one month there were 104 editions of the superbowl“, Infantino compared again. “And obviously that has a consequence on prices.”
“The price of the tickets has been set, but they have, especially in the United States, something called dynamic pricing, which causes them to rise or fall depending on demand and the match poster,” he elaborated.
“They can also resell their tickets on the official platforms, in the secondary market and the prices will rise again. That is part of the market,” he explained.
Income from the World Cup
North America 2026, the largest World Cup in history, with 48 teams competing across three countries, will give FIFA an estimated income of “11 billion dollars, maybe a little more,” said its president.
But “every dollar is reinvested in football in the 211 countries” affiliated, he assured.
He also calculated that the impact of the World Cup on the US economy will be around “$30 billion in terms of tourism, restaurants, security, investments, etc.”
According to Infantino, in addition to the seven million spectators in the stadiums, the World Cup will also attract between 20 and 30 million tourists and will create “185,000 full-time jobs.”
“This will have a huge effect (…) And I hope that this effect is not limited to the World Cup, but that it (continues) in the future,” he confided.
