Gianni Infantino stood up and said every match was sold out. He was wrong. With a month to go until the World Cup kicks off across the US, Canada and Mexico, not a single one of the 104 scheduled games has actually sold out — and thousands of seats remain available on FIFA's own website.
The pricing is the story. Category One tickets for England's June 17 opener against Croatia are listed at £1,874 each. There are still 67 of them sitting unsold. The Ghana clash on June 23 has 252 tickets available at £1,482 a pop. Panama on June 27? Another 126 at £1,365. And that's before you get to the hundreds more across the cheaper tiers, or the nearly 10,000 resale tickets on FIFA's own platform starting from £430.
The fans aren't coming back for this
"Last-minute" sales windows have done nothing. Even touts — who exist entirely to profit from demand — are dropping their asking prices, according to TicketData.com. When the scalpers are cutting deals, you know the market has spoken.
England fan Simon Harris put it plainly: "Given the extreme prices, it's no surprise not a single game has sold out." Fellow supporter Max Veltman was less diplomatic — "Fifa have only themselves to blame. They're a bunch of crooks."
The Football Supporters' Association called it "the most expensive World Cup in history" and noted that FIFA's "ridiculous ticket pricing and opaque policies" have pushed ordinary fans out of the picture entirely. That's not hyperbole. It's what the empty seats will confirm come June.
What this means beyond the empty seats
For England's tournament odds and the broader betting market around the competition, atmosphere matters. A half-empty stadium in a high-stakes group game changes the dynamic — for players, for broadcasters, for the spectacle that FIFA has spent decades monetising. A flat crowd isn't just bad optics, it's a different game.
FIFA did not respond to a request for comment. Infantino's claim that "every match is sold out" also remains uncorrected.
