The Biggest World Cup Ever Is Becoming FIFA’s Biggest Fan Problem

After Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022 took heavy heat for corruption allegations and human rights concerns, FIFA 2026 was supposed to be the fresh start, the feel-good tournament that brought the game back to North America and put fans first.

Instead, with the World Cup now only five weeks away, the noise around the United States, Canada and Mexico is getting louder for all the wrong reasons. This is the first World Cup with 48 teams instead of 32, expanded to 104 matches and supposed to bring more of the world into the tournament. But right now it feels like the opposite is happening. The World Cup is getting bigger, while the average fan is being asked to pay more, stress more, and in some cases even think twice about travelling at all.

The Ticketing Mess Is Killing The Vibe

Start with the most basic promise any World Cup makes, that the stadiums will be full and the energy will be ridiculous. Even that is wobbling. In Los Angeles, the United States opener on June 12 should be the kind of match that sells itself. But it is still not sold out weeks before kickoff, with seats sitting there because the prices are scaring people off. And not resale prices, FIFA prices.

Fans have described the process as confusing and opaque, with tickets released in batches and prices shifting over time. Some supporters who have followed the team for decades say they are being pushed out of a group stage game by four-figure price tags. That is where people start getting frustrated. This is not a final, it is not a knockout blockbuster, it is the front door of the tournament. If the front door feels like a VIP checkpoint, what does that say about the rest of it?

Then FIFA somehow managed to pour fuel on the fire through its own official resale system. The most expensive official ticket for the Qatar 2022 final was around $2,200 AUD, but now FIFA’s World Cup resale website has listed the cheapest standard final ticket at $11,000 USD (~$15,200 AUD), while four final tickets appeared at just under $2.3 million USD (~$3.2 million AUD) each. It might be one seller fishing for a billionaire, but it is still sitting on FIFA’s platform, making the biggest game in football feel disconnected from normal fans.

Travel Fears And Visa Headaches Are Making Fans Hesitate

A World Cup works when people feel welcome. Right now, plenty of fans do not. The United States is hosting the biggest slice of games, and its political climate around immigration is impossible to separate from the travel conversation. Even if you have done nothing wrong, stories of crackdowns, tougher screening, and aggressive enforcement can be enough to make people pause before booking flights, especially supporters coming from countries that already face higher visa barriers.

AFP

That hesitation is starting to show up in the hospitality numbers. A recent American Hotel and Lodging Association outlook found many hotels across US host cities are tracking below early World Cup booking expectations, with hoteliers pointing to visa barriers, international travel friction, geopolitical worries, and FIFA room block cancellations that scrambled the market. In other words, the expected World Cup boom has not really shown up yet, because too many would-be travellers feel priced out or put off.

Politics And Broadcast Chaos Are Creeping Into The Tournament

The World Cup is meant to be the rare moment when everybody watches the same thing at the same time. But even that is getting messy. Broadcast rights talks were still unresolved in the world’s two most populous countries, which feels absurd this close to kickoff, considering how massive those audiences are.

And then there is the political drama that should never get near a qualification list. A Donald Trump envoy suggested removing Iran from the tournament and replacing them with Italy, even though Italy did not qualify. The absurd idea was turned down, as it should have been, but it says everything about the political tension surrounding this World Cup.

FIFA 2026 still has everything it needs to be iconic. It could be the loudest, biggest World Cup ever, and the final World Cup chapter for the Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo generation. But right now the build-up feels tense and transactional. Bigger tournament, bigger money, bigger complications, and more fans are starting to ask whether this tournament still feels like it belongs to them.

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