Incorrectly priced tickets were sold through the official World Cup site ahead of next week's main FIFA event.
Published June 5, 2026
FIFA canceled World Cup tickets issued to about 60 fans who got them for free by mistake due to a website error.
The tickets were “allocated free of charge ($0) due to a prepayment issue during the purchasing process,” FIFA said in a statement Thursday.
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“FIFA regrets the error and any inconvenience caused,” football's governing body said. “The tickets requested by these fans remain reserved and the affected fans have been invited to complete the payment of the correct amount.”
It's the latest failure in an often-controversial World Cup ticketing program that the attorneys general of New York and New Jersey are investigating for possible violations of consumer protection laws.
The incorrectly priced tickets were sold through the official World Cup site on May 21, FIFA said in an email to buyers.
That date was more than three months after FIFA president Gianni Infantino said all 104 World Cup matches had been sold out.
FIFA is still selling tickets for the World Cup matches, which opens next Thursday in Mexico City. It is unclear whether seats for lower-demand games will drop in price under FIFA's surge pricing model, which has been controversial for fans.
FIFA also operates its own resale platform (and charges a 15 percent commission from both buyers and sellers) to remove ticket sellers from the market. However, sales platforms such as SeatGeek offered widespread availability for many games on Friday.
Tickets for the 2026 World Cup are massively more expensive than any previous edition, which FIFA has justified by saying it will help earn billions of dollars that it will give to member federations to develop the game globally.
FIFA took control of pricing and ticket sales as part of bringing World Cup operations in-house. The traditional model in previous editions was to work with the local organizing committees of the host countries.
When the soccer federations of the United States, Canada and Mexico won hosting rights in 2018, they promised to sell hundreds of thousands of tickets at $21 each for group stage matches. FIFA was selling official tickets for the front row of the final for $32,970.
