FIFA Cancels ~60 Free Tickets Issued in Website Error, Offers Fans Chance to Pay Correct Price
The organization said a website error during checkout on May 21 allowed the tickets to be issued at zero cost. It has invited the fans to pay the correct price while keeping the seats reserved.
Al JazeeraFIFA canceled World Cup tickets issued to about 60 fans who received them at no charge because of a website error. The tickets were allocated at zero cost due to a prior payment issue during the checkout process on the official site, the organization said in a statement Thursday.
FIFA said it regrets the error and any inconvenience caused, and it has invited the affected fans to complete payment of the correct amount while keeping their requested tickets reserved.
The mispriced tickets were sold through the official World Cup site on May 21. That date came more than three months after FIFA president Gianni Infantino said all 104 World Cup games had sold out. Tickets remain on sale for games at the tournament, which opens next Thursday in Mexico City.
FIFA is also running its own resale platform and taking a 15 percent commission from both buyers and sellers. Sales platforms such as Seat Geek were offering widespread availability on June 5 for many games. Tickets for the 2026 World Cup are priced higher than any previous edition, a change FIFA has said helps generate revenue it distributes to member federations for global development.
The United States, Canada and Mexico won hosting rights in 2018 and promised to sell hundreds of thousands of tickets at $21 each for group-stage matches. FIFA later took control of pricing and sales, moving operations in-house from the previous model that relied on host-nation organizing committees.
The latest incident follows an ongoing investigation by the attorneys general of New York and New Jersey into the ticketing program for possible consumer-protection violations.
