World Cup Tickets Vanish From FIFA-Appear to Reemerge on Resale Sites

Thousands of tickets for the 2026 FIFA World Cup were recently taken off the organization's official portal, and Newsweek can confirm that these ended up on the resale marketplace.

In late May, the number of tickets fans were able to purchase from the organization suddenly dropped by 44,000 to under 30,000. FIFA has not offered an explanation for the decline, which TicketData.com said was due to an unspecified "sudden inventory removal."

Reports emerged that there had been an increase in tickets at lower prices across resale platforms like SeatGeek and StubHub, with some speculating that this was a deliberate strategy by the organization to clear unsold inventory for lower-demand games, and to avoid compensation claims from fans who had previously bought tickets from FIFA at face value.

According to analysis by a source familiar with the figures who spoke to Newsweek, the number of tickets which disappeared in late May closely matches the volume that has since appeared on resale marketplaces, indicating that they were transferred in bulk from FIFA's official ticketing system.

The transfer does not confirm that this was an official strategy by FIFA to influence demand or pricing, and Newsweek has contacted the organization via email for comment.

FIFA's Ticketing Strategy

FIFA has come under scrutiny for high prices at this year's tournament. The organization said this was due in part to its use of a "dynamic pricing" model, which adjusts costs based on demand, as well as high levels of interest in the World Cup.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has also placed blame on the secondary ticket market, arguing that seats need to be set at "market rates," as resellers would purchase lower priced tickets and then distribute these at "a much higher price."

Prices on resale platforms are typically higher than those purchased directly from an organizer. But resale prices have until recently been plummeting-dropping to less than the official releases in many cases-amid reports of sluggish fan demand for the tournament.

Following the sudden disappearance of over 40,000 tickets from the main platform in late May, some have observed an uptick in the number available on the resale marketplace, as well as lower relative prices for certain fixtures.

Large Blocks of Seats Available

Florian Ederer, a professor of economics at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business, this week posted a SeatGeek stadium map on X with blocks of what he said were newly available seats for the June 26 Saudi Arabia-Cape Verde match.

Ederer said the pattern of available tickets-"large, contiguous blocks of seats"-does not resemble typical fan or commercial scalper resale patterns, but rather that inventory had been "dumped in bulk onto secondary markets, at prices below FIFA’s official site."

He argued this would allow the organization to reduce resale seat costs to clear unsold inventory while keeping "official prices high," and that it had a financial incentive to use this approach rather than lower its own prices.

“Official price cuts could trigger refund demands, chargebacks, or consumer-protection headaches from fans who already bought at much higher prices,” he wrote.

FIFA Under Investigation

FIFA has not yet commented on whether it has been intentionally rerouting tickets from its own platform to the resale marketplace, but questions about its inventory management and pricing strategy have been raised by U.S. officials.

In late May, New York Attorney General Letitia James and New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport subpoenaed FIFA as part of a probe into the organization's practices in the 2026 World Cup.

"Recent press reports indicate that fans may have been misled about the locations of the seats they were purchasing, and FIFA's public statements and ticket releases may have contributed to soaring prices," an announcement from the New York AG's office read.

Davenport accused FIFA of turning the ticket-purchasing process into “gauntlet of confusion, fake scarcity and impossibly high prices." Samuel A.A. Levine, the commissioner of New York City's Department of Consumer and Worker Protection said that, in doing so, FIFA may have violated U.S. consumer protection laws.

FIFA Releases More Tickets Amid Scrutiny

As questions were raised about its ticket distribution strategy, FIFA has this week released over 15,000 thousand onto its main terminal, with around 33,000 available as of Thursday morning. The organization has not commented on the latest release.

The World Cup kicks off on June 11, with Mexico and South Africa facing off in the first fixture, and FIFA has said it will release tickets throughout the competition.

“Ticket sales for the FIFA World Cup 2026 remain strong, with a high degree of interest for all matches,” a spokesperson for FIFA told Newsweek last week. “More than 5 million tickets have already been sold, and tickets will continue to be made available on a first-come first-served basis at fifa.com/tickets until the end of the tournament as part of the Last-Minute Sales Phase.”

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This story was originally published June 4, 2026 at 7:17 AM.