WASHINGTON.- The fourth and final phase of ticket sales for the 2026 soccer world cup began this Wednesday, two and a half months after the ball started rolling, reported the FIFA.
This “last minute” sales phase opened at 3:00 p.m. GMT on the official FIFA.com/tickets website, without the football governing body specifying the number of tickets that are available to the public.
Tickets are sold on a “first come, first served” basis. They will be sold until the end of the competition, on July 19, FIFA said in a statement.
At the indicated time, buyers were directed to a “waiting” page to “wait in line” until they could access the site.
“A countdown will appear before you can access the ticket sales phase. Once the count is complete, an ‘Enter’ button will be available for five minutes,” the instructions warn.
Tickets will go on sale progressively, sometimes even for matches taking place on the same day, in accordance with FIFA.
During the only sales phase with a random selection procedure, in January and February, more than one million tickets were sold out of 500 million requests, according to the entity.
If the capacity of the 16 stadiums of the competition, which begins on June 11, is taken into account, around seven million tickets should be sold.
Price criticism
The issue of ticket sales has generated controversy, as FIFA has been accused of offering them at exorbitant prices, in disregard of the promises made when the tournament was awarded to the three organizing countries: USA, Canada and Mexico.
The European fans organization (ESF) announced last week that he sued FIFA before the European Commission to renounce its “opaque and unfair” purchasing procedures.
Along with Euroconsumersan organization that represents consumers on the continent, the FSE filed “an official complaint with the European Commission against FIFA” for having “abused its monopoly position,” the association explained.
The president of FIFA, Gianni Infantinohas defended the price of these locations, considering that it is determined by “crazy” demand.
In December, the organization created a category of $60 tickets reserved for official fan groups.
According to the FSE, this quota was practically exhausted before sales opened to the general public.
FIFA will reopen the official ticket resale and exchange platform on Thursday.
This platform has also been criticized for the equally prohibitive prices of tickets offered for resale.
Football’s governing body explained that it did not intervene in this “fan-to-fan market” in which the reseller “determines the displayed price of each ticket.”
