FIFA has had some trouble filling rooms as well as reading them.
The global organization released a new block of “last-minute” tickets to this summer’s World Cup amid reports that sales for several games — including the United States’ opener — have failed to hit their marks.
According to a post on the social media site X on Tuesday, “tickets across all 104 matches” were made available for public purchase at 11 a.m. ET on Wednesday on “a first-come, first-served basis.”
Soccer fans weren’t pleased, to say the least. Many users on social media ripped FIFA for creating “fake” demand for the tournament, while also ensuring that prices remain high.
Others were quick to note that this isn’t FIFA’s first use of the term “last minute” when it comes to ticket sales this year.
Some also pointed out that many fans who spent their time and hard-earned money buying tickets during earlier rounds of sales should be left feeling slighted by this new release. Most people who purchased the unassigned Category 1 tickets under the impression they would have a chance at prime seats near midfield were placed in less desirable areas near the corners of the field.
“You denied me tickets to 10 matches and now there are suddenly more tickets available … Please explain,” one user replied on X.
“This is your 17th ‘last-minute sale’ because you’re trying to create fake demand and extort fans with exorbitant prices,” another wrote.
“How many rounds of ‘last minute tickets’ will there be? Drop the prices by 80% and they’ll move,” a third user replied.
How long was the wait for tickets and how much were they?
Fans hoping to score tickets through this official process were put through lengthy wait times on Wednesday as well — though that has been the case throughout the sales process.
According to the FIFA website, those who braved the queue — which lasted several hours for many — were limited to purchasing up to four tickets per game and a maximum of 40 “per household” across the entire tournament, including previously purchased tickets.
Never mind the fact that most households wouldn’t be able to afford that amount of seats at the prices FIFA has listed them at.
Tickets to the Canadian men’s national team opener against Bosnia and Herzegovina in the new ‘Front Category 1’ category — more on that later — were put on sale for $4,750 with several available hours after sales began.
For the match between Ghana and Panama, the front-row seats were priced at $1,575 each — almost $1,000 more than Category 1 tickets that fans were led to believe included a chance at the premium areas.
Each game that is set to be hosted at BMO Field had tickets up for sale as part of the “last-minute” release with the cheapest being a few in Category 2 in the upper deck priced at $530 for the match between Senegal and Iraq.
At 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, there was just a single seat available for Germany versus Cote d’Ivoire located in a corner section of the east stands and priced at $2,700.
Are games sold out?
According to FIFA, more than five million tickets had been sold before Wednesday’s release, but there were several games that remained far from sold out.
On Tuesday, The Athletic reported that ticket sales for the United States’ World Cup opener against Paraguay were lagging behind other matches set to take place in Los Angeles.
According to information obtained by the outlet that was distributed to local organizers, 40,934 tickets were listed as purchased for that June 12 match compared to 50,661 for the Iran-New Zealand match three days later at SoFi Stadium. The stadium’s capacity, as listed by FIFA, is 69,650 for the 2026 World Cup.
It’s fairly easy to comprehend why tickets might be moving slowly for the match, however.
As part of Wednesday’s “last-minute” sale, ticket prices for Front Category 1 seats were revealed to cost $5,740 per seat, while the Front Category 2 tickets — located in the first rows of the second deck — carried a price tag of $3,260.
While some Category 3 tickets remained — seated in the corner sections of the upper deck — at $1,565, there were seats in the last row of SoFi Stadium around midfield that cost $2,715 each.
What are Front Category 1 seats?
Earlier this month, FIFA created a new category for ticket sales: Front Category 1.
The new category of tickets encompasses premium front-row seats that had previously been zoned in Category 1 — and carry a price tag that is at least double the original cost in some cases.
This new category of ticket sales is also available to purchase during this new round of sales through FIFA’s official site.
Henry Bushnell of The Athletic reported that this new ‘Front Category 1” had not been advertised or mentioned until now, after tickets began to be assigned to seats last week.
How had ticket categories been assigned?
When FIFA originally launched ticket sales in September 2025 for the World Cup being co-hosted by Canada, Mexico and the U.S., it did so by selling off unassigned seats in different categories at each stadium. Premium seats in the lower sections of the stadium fell into the most expensive Category 1, with prices set by using FIFA’s “dynamic” ticket pricing plan.
With categories encompassing large areas and many different sections of stadiums, it seemingly became a lottery as to where any given customer could have their seat assigned – with many left fuming and feeling “scammed” after paying top dollar and being slotted into lesser-desired areas of the given category.
There had been hopes by fans of scoring a potential front-row seat for the match they potentially paid thousands of dollars to attend, but that seemingly has been squashed by FIFA.
A week after the tickets were assigned, FIFA began selling the new Front Category 1 for at least 20 games, as per The Athletic, as well as Front Category 2 for the first several rows in some sections.
How much are tickets on resale market?
FIFA has already faced heavy criticism over the price of tickets on the resale market.
Tickets for the Canada opener have dramatically increased in price on resale markets, with the most tickets for the June 12 game priced at more than $2,000. As of Wednesday afternoon, the cheapest ticket on Stubhub was going for $1,640 and was seated in Category 3.
Category 4 tickets — the cheap seats, if you will — originally were sold through the FIFA website for around $1,300. Category 1 tickets came with an original price of $3,035 each, but can now be found on StubHub for up to $62,000.