Fifa president Gianni Infantino said the unprecedented demand for 2026 World Cup tickets vindicates their controversial pricing structure.
Speaking at the opening of the World Sports Summit at Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai on Monday, Infantino revealed Fifa had received 150 million ticket requests since they went on sale 15 days ago.
Fifa has come in for fierce criticism over the cost of tickets following a sharp increase in price from Qatar 2022. Scotland manager Steve Clarke even warned supporters not to risk going into debt just to attend the tournament in North America.
Football’s governing body responded by releasing a very small number of cheaper tickets to the federations of the qualified nations. Infantino acknowledged the criticism as he addressed the summit, but quickly moved on to spelling out the sheer scale of demand.
“It's a World Cup year. We all know what this means,” he said. “Three beautiful countries, United States, Canada and Mexico [and] 16 fantastic host cities, 48 teams participating, 48 countries, a quarter of the world. [That is] 104 matches, 104 Super Bowls in one month to determine who will be the world champion.
“We'll have six to seven million people in the stadiums. We'll have six billion people watching from home. We generate over $10 billion revenue, which we reinvest in the game all over the world.
“And in the last few days, you probably have seen, there is a lot of debate about ticketing and ticket prices. So, I was saying we have six to seven million tickets on sale. And we started two weeks ago, more or less, the sales phase.
“Now, tell me what do you think, in these two weeks, how many ticket requests [have] we received? Maybe five million, maybe 10 million, maybe 20 million, what do you think? Well, I can tell you because in two weeks, in 15 days, we received 150 million ticket requests. So, 10 million ticket requests every single day.
“This shows how powerful the World Cup is. And what is interesting is that, of course, number one is one of the host countries, United States. Number two and three are Germany and the UK, which shows again how many people want to attend the World Cup.
“If you think that in 100 years, almost 100 years of history of the World Cup, Fifa has sold 44 million tickets in total. So, in two weeks for the next World Cup next year, we could have filled 300 years of World Cups.
“Imagine that. This is absolutely crazy. And what is important and what is crucial is that the revenues that are generated from this are going back to the game all over the world.”
Fifa awards in Dubai
Infantino also revealed that the Fifa World Football Awards will be held in Dubai in 2026. The Fifa president saved the surprise announcement for the conclusion of his speech, as he revealed: “I can announce here as well a new partnership that we have closed together. We will, as of next year, award the best players, coaches, teams, legends in the world here in Dubai.
“So, as of next year, from Dubai, you will see and hear and learn who officially, because it's coming from Fifa, who officially are the Fifa World Football Award winners. I would like to thank Dubai. All of you present, we are having fun now. We'll have much more fun in the near future.”
Later in the day, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, Crown Prince of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence, announced the signing “of a partnership between Fifa and the Dubai Sports Council to launch a new global award from Dubai in 2026."
It will mark the staging of another major awards ceremony in the region. The Fifa Best Awards were most recently staged in Qatar earlier this month with Ousmane Dembele named best male player and Aitana Bonmati best female.
Dembele, who also claimed the Ballon d’Or and top prize at Sunday’s Globe Soccer Awards, was part of the Paris Saint-Germain team beaten by Chelsea in the final of last summer’s expanded Fifa Club World Cup.
That tournament was not without controversy, however, with it being perceived by some as another weighty burden on an already overcrowded football calendar. It also initially struggled to attract sponsors and broadcast partners before streaming service Dazn bought the rights. The tournament will next be staged in 2029 with a host nation yet to be decided. Fifa is also planning to put on an expanded 19-team women’s Club World Cup in 2028.
Reflecting on last summer’s tournament, Infantino claimed it had been the “most successful club competition in the world”.
“We created, as you know, a new competition, the Fifa Club World Cup, which took place in the United States of America,” he said. “The 32 best clubs in the world performing to see who is the best club. Chelsea won in the final against Paris Saint-Germain. It was a thrilling event.
“But what is important about this event is, of course, it was a commercial success, the most successful club competition in the world – $33 million value per match with the revenues that we made. But this is only one element.
World Sports Summit Day 1 - in pictures
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Fifa president Gianni Infantino delivers a keynote speech at the World Sports Summit at Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai. All photos: Antonie Robertson / The National -
UFC Hall of Famer Khabib Nurmagomedov attends Day 1 of the World Sports Summit in Dubai. -
Former Brazil striker Ronaldo Nazario joins Fifa president Gianni Infantino on stage during the opening of the World Sports Summit in Dubai. -
Tennis player Novak Djokovic on stage. The 24-time Grand Slam champion says he plans to play on until at least the LA Olympics in 2028. -
Tunisian tennis player Ons Jabeur speaks to media at the World Sports Summit in Dubai. -
Manny Pacquiao, boxing's only eight-division champion, was one of the guests interviewed on Day 1 of the World Sports Summit at Madinat Jumeirah. -
Khalfan Belhoul, Vice Chairman of the Dubai Sports Council addresses the audience at the World Sports Summit in Dubai. -
Mina Al-Oraibi, Editor-in-Chief of The National newspaper, speaks to Bahrain's Sheikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, during their discussion 'Leading from the Front, The Discipline of a World Champion and The Vision of a Prince'. -
Attendees at the World Sports Summit at Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai. -
Ons Jabeur and Paula Badosa during a panel session on Day 1 of the World Sports Summit in Dubai.
“The other element, more important, is that for Fifa, who have been focusing for 120 years on national team football, it is important as well to focus on club football.
“Why? Because club football is the football that everyone plays. Only a minority of players play for national teams, but every player plays for a club. We need to develop club football everywhere in the world.
“We need to give opportunities everywhere in the world for clubs and for players to play at the highest level. So, in this Fifa Club World Cup, we have players from 72 different countries participating. Only in the final, Chelsea versus PSG, we had players from 16 different countries and five different continents in the squads of two teams.
“This means that in one match, you have the entire world that is directly connected to what is going on, and you give hope and opportunity to children in these 16 countries, in these five different continents. Because they know that one day, if they are good enough, if they work hard, they can play in the final of a World Cup. Maybe not of the national team, but of their club.”
Infantino also discussed the use of VAR in football, claiming it had made the game more “just”. He suggested there could be future tweaks to the offside rule and that Fifa was looking to crack down on time-wasting.
He said: “We introduced, as you know, some years ago, VAR, to make it more just, to give a referee the opportunity to correct the mistake that millions and millions of people back home or even in the stadium could see. So, we introduced VAR, we made the game more just. We are making VAR better and better [with] better technology to help referees take the right decision.
“We continue to look at the laws of the game, how can we make the game more offensive, more attractive? We look at the offside rule, for example, which has evolved as well over the years by being when the attacker has to be behind the defender, to in line with the defender, maybe in future it will be in front in order to be offside.
“But we are looking at also time-wasting measures. It's important that the game is flowing in the right way, so interruptions of the game have to be reduced to the minimum.”
