Former U.S. President Donald Trump has added his voice to the mounting backlash against FIFA over exorbitant ticket pricing for the 2026 co-hosted World Cup, revealing in a recent interview that he would refuse to shell out more than $1,000 to attend the United States men’s national team’s opening match of the tournament.
In comments published by the New York Post on Thursday, the former president — who has long touted his role in securing the 2026 World Cup hosting rights for the North American bloc during his first term in office — acknowledged he was caught off guard by the steep ticket costs. “I did not know that number,” Trump told the outlet. “I would certainly like to be there, but I wouldn’t pay it either, to be honest with you.”
Trump’s criticism centers on the impact high prices will have on working- and lower-income Americans, a core electoral base that has backed him through multiple campaigns. He highlighted that his biggest disappointment with the current pricing structure is that it locks out the voters who supported him. “If people from Queens and Brooklyn and all of the people that love Donald Trump can’t go, I would be disappointed, but, you know, at the same time, it’s an amazing success,” he said. “I would like to be able to have the people that voted for me to be able to go.”
The former president’s public pushback marks a rare break from his close personal ties to FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who defended the organization’s pricing model just days before Trump’s comments. Infantino argued that FIFA is legally required to allow third-party ticket resale under U.S. regulations, a system that has driven resale prices into the thousands of dollars above original face value. He also pushed back on critics by noting that more than 500 million fan requests for World Cup tickets have already been submitted — a massive jump from the combined total of fewer than 50 million requests for both the 2018 Russia World Cup and 2022 Qatar World Cup. To counter claims of widespread unaffordability, Infantino added that 25% of all group stage tickets are priced below $300.
But critics have pushed back against that defense, drawing stark comparisons between 2026 pricing and the 2022 Qatar tournament. For example, the most expensive face-value ticket for the 2022 World Cup final hovered around $1,600, while the equivalent 2026 final ticket carries a face price of roughly $11,000. The outrage over pricing extends far beyond Trump: U.S. lawmakers and international fan advocacy groups have already slammed FIFA for its tiered pricing structure, with European fan organization Football Supporters Europe calling the model a “monumental betrayal” of football supporters worldwide.
The 2026 World Cup, jointly hosted by the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, is scheduled to kick off this coming June, and remains one of the most anticipated global sporting events of the year. But the ongoing controversy over ticket costs has overshadowed build-up to the tournament, turning pricing policy into a high-profile public debate that now draws input from one of the most influential figures in U.S. politics.