FIFA pushed back Friday on viral images of swaths of empty seats at Thursday’s World Cup match in Guadalajara, Mexico, saying the official attendance figure was accurate and that “several ticketed fans could be seen standing in concourses rather than staying in their assigned seats throughout the match.”
“Official attendance figures reflect the number of tickets scanned and spectators present within the stadium footprint, rather than visual assessments of seating occupancy at any given moment during the match,” FIFA said in its statement.
Swaths of empty seats visible during Thursday’s World Cup match between South Korea and the Czech Republic have raised questions over FIFA’s approach to record ticket prices for the tournament.
Many of the empty seats appeared to be located in VIP sections near the pitch, according to the Athletic, which said there seemed to be thousands of unoccupied places throughout the stadium.
Ticket prices in the hospitality section were priced at around $5,000, while general admission tickets in the lower tier cost $500, the publication added.
Soccer’s governing body, FIFA, reported a crowd of 44,985 at Mexico’s Guadalajara Stadium, which has a capacity of 46,000. It did not confirm whether the figure was based on ticket sales or the number of fans who entered the grounds.
The venue is the second smallest stadium at the World Cup, behind Canada’s Toronto Stadium, which has a capacity of 45,000.
How much do tickets cost for the 2026 World Cup?
Ticket prices for the tournament have increased fivefold compared to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, according to the fan group Football Supporters Europe (FSE), which described the costs as “extortionate.”
FIFA has used a dynamic pricing model that has pushed prices much higher for some matches, and some games have yet to sell out. The organization says it has sold more than six million tickets for the tournament.
FIFA has defended the cost of tickets for this year’s tournament.
(Reuters / REUTERS)
When they went on sale last fall, the cheapest tickets for group-stage games were priced at $140, up from $69 at the 2022 World Cup. FSE noted that organizers had promised tickets priced as low as $21 in a 2018 bid document.
Regular seats for the final, which will take place in New Jersey on July 19, were initially listed at up to $8,680. The prices were later raised to $10,990 and then to $32,970. The most expensive ticket for the 2022 final was about $1,600.
Following criticism, FIFA offered a smaller number of $60 tickets to all 104 matches to national federations for their regular supporters. FIFA President Gianni Infantino said 130,000 tickets were offered in that category.
In May, the attorneys general of Texas, New York and New Jersey launched investigations into the ticket prices. The tournament is being held across the United States, Mexico and Canada.
What else has FIFA said?
Infantino defended the pricing strategy earlier in the week, saying the costs were comparable to those of other major sporting events. He added, “If we do something wrong, then probably everyone selling tickets in North America is doing something wrong.”
More tickets will become available closer to matches, Infantino said, including those reserved for teams that qualify for the knockout rounds.
How many tickets remain unsold?
On the eve of the tournament, 29 games were sold out, and 75 had tickets remaining, according to the Associated Press.
Almost 180,000 tickets were still available on FIFA’s official resale platform on Tuesday, the Financial Times said, with the median ticket price on there falling by 20 percent over the past month. Third-party resale sites such as StubHub and SeatGeek also have World Cup tickets for sale.
A capacity crowd of 80,824 attended the opening match between cohost Mexico and South Africa in Mexico City earlier on Thursday, the AP said.
