FIFA have been humiliated by what was seen during the Czech Republic's clash against South Korea on the opening day of the World Cup. The tournament kicked off on Thursday with a sight it had desperately wanted to avoid: noticeable patches of empty seats in stadiums.
It appears the ramifications of the governing body's contentious World Cup ticketing approach became instantly visible to a worldwide television audience. Earlier in the day, greedy FOX breached a FIFA regulation in the tournament's opening game.
The second fixture of the tournament, South Korea versus Czechia at Estadio Akron in Guadalajara, provided the starkest early indication of the issue. Vacant sections were plainly visible throughout the match, particularly in the VIP zones and sections opposite the primary camera.
It followed controversy that erupted in the very first game. It was an image that FIFA had devoted months and millions attempting to avoid. As recently as early June, the governing body discreetly reduced prices across all 104 matches and released 70 per cent of its bulk-reserved hotel rooms in what seemed to be an eleventh-hour attempt to fill seats, reports the Mirror US.
It proved insufficient. As of the eve of the tournament, roughly 180,000 tickets remained listed across FIFA's official resale platforms. Around 15,000 group-stage tickets were still obtainable directly through FIFA's website.
For the United States' opening fixture against Paraguay on 12 June, one of the tournament's most eagerly awaited matches, more than 4,400 seats remained unsold through official channels. The cheapest tickets still commanding $1,120 directly from FIFA and the median resale price sitting above $800 even following a 20 per cent drop in prices over the previous month.
The roots of the crisis lie firmly with FIFA's decision to adopt variable pricing, a model it has distinguished from 'dynamic pricing' largely as a matter of semantics, for the first time at a World Cup. Prices for 90 of the 104 matches climbed by an average of 34 per cent between October 2025 and April 2026. The cheapest standard ticket to the final reached $5,785.
The priciest seats hit $10,990 before later tripling once more. Final tickets on the resale market were at one stage listed at close to $33,000. When the United States, Canada and Mexico submitted their original hosting bid, a seat at the final was pledged at a maximum of $1,550.
The attorneys general of New York and New Jersey launched a formal investigation into the pricing practices, issuing subpoenas to FIFA. Congressional figures called for Gianni Infantino to appear before Congress. A day before the tournament got underway, Infantino defended the pricing by arguing cheaper tickets would have been resold on the black market.
The empty seats on day one are the most damning response yet to that claim. FIFA boasted in January that its ticketing website had received more than 500 million booking requests. Yet judging by Thursday's opening matches, demand at the prices FIFA had set was markedly lower.
