Gianni Infantino has responded to criticism of the 2026 edition’s pricing by highlighting the “very special” US market as a factor.
Published April 17, 2026
FIFA president Gianni Infantino has defended the high ticket prices for this year’s North American World Cup, saying the world-famous tournament is FIFA’s only source of income once every four years.
Speaking at Semafor’s annual World Economic Summit in New York on Friday, Infantino also reiterated that FIFA is a non-profit organization with 211 member countries.
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“What a lot of people don’t know is that we make billions of dollars from the World Cup, but what people don’t know is that FIFA is a non-profit organization, which means that all the revenue that we generate we invest in the organization of the game in 211 countries around the world,” Infantino said during a Q&A session. “Three-quarters[of these countries]probably wouldn’t be able to sustain organized football without the grants that we can give, so we always try to find the right balance.”
A check on secondary market ticket site StubHub on Friday found that the cheapest ticket for the U.S. World Cup opener against Paraguay on June 12 was listed as $1,359, while tickets to the Lower Bowl at the Los Angeles venue were selling for as much as $14,000 per seat.
For the World Cup finals, held in the New York area on July 19, a ticket to the Upper Deck went for $8,860, and tickets to the Lower Bowl went up to $25,000.
After initial complaints about ticket prices and availability, FIFA introduced a $60 option for a small portion of each venue.
“The main, and so far only, revenue-generating event for FIFA is the World Cup,” Infantino said. “The World Cup is held in one month every four years, so money is generated in one month. We will spend that money for 47 months until the next World Cup.”
Infantino called North America a “very special market” and said he has lived in the U.S. for the past couple of years to better “understand” the market.
This year’s World Cup will feature a record 48 teams, divided into 12 groups of four teams, with matches to be played in the United States, Canada and Mexico. The tournament will consist of a record 104 matches.
