SeatGeek pushed back Wednesday against allegations that FIFA routed unsold tickets for the 2026 World Cup through the platform to avoid compensation claims from fans who paid full price, saying the company has no partnership or distribution deal with soccer’s global governing body.
“SeatGeek is a trusted marketplace that gives fans secure access to tickets across tens of thousands of live events, including the World Cup,” a company spokesperson told Newsweek. “We do not have a partnership or distribution agreement with FIFA.”
The denial came after Florian Ederer, an economics professor at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business, posted a seat map on X showing large, contiguous blocks of tickets available on SeatGeek for the Saudi Arabia-Cape Verde group-stage match in Houston on June 26. The blocks span entire rows and multiple sections, a pattern Ederer said does not resemble typical fan or commercial scalper resale.
“The circled areas are not random single resale tickets, but large, contiguous blocks of seats: entire rows and swaths in sections,” Ederer wrote on X. “That’s not what ordinary fan or even commercial scalper resale looks like who resell pairs, fours, and scattered seats. Instead, this looks like inventory being dumped in bulk onto secondary markets, at prices below FIFA’s official site.”
Ederer argued that FIFA had a financial incentive to move inventory quietly rather than cut official prices.
“Official price cuts could trigger refund demands, chargebacks, or consumer-protection headaches from fans who already bought at much higher prices,” he wrote.
Seats in the affected sections are listed at roughly $200 on SeatGeek and $700 on FIFA’s own resale platform.
Newsweek reached out to FIFA for comment.
Ticket Prices Problem
Ederer’s post amplified broader questions about how FIFA has managed unsold inventory in the weeks before the tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico opens June 11.
FIFA dramatically altered its approach to secondary ticket markets compared to previous tournaments. For past World Cups, the governing body typically capped resale prices at face value while taking smaller fees of 10 percent or less.
However, for 2026, FIFA abandoned price caps for matches in the United States and Canada, a decision officials defended by claiming that restrictions would drive sellers to third-party platforms such as StubHub.
An analysis found that the lowest available price has dropped in recent weeks for 76 of the 78 matches in the United States, and in almost half of the group-stage games, tickets were available on the resale market for lower than FIFA’s face value.
FIFA Under Investigation
New York Attorney General Letitia James and New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport have issued subpoenas to FIFA as part of a joint investigation into the organization’s ticketing practices for the 2026 World Cup, focusing in particular on matches at New York New Jersey Stadium (MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey), where eight games, including the final, are scheduled to be played.
The attorneys general accused FIFA of creating a “gauntlet of confusion, fake scarcity and impossibly high prices.” The probe follows reports that fans may have been misled about seat locations and faced rapidly escalating prices.
What Has FIFA Said About Ticket Prices?
A FIFA spokesperson previously told Newsweek that it is “focused on ensuring fair access to our game for existing but also prospective fans,” highlighting that group-stage tickets started at $60, which it described as “a very competitive price point for a major global sporting event in the U.S.”
The organization added that its pricing strategy “spans a broad range of price points and categories, reflecting market demand for each match,” with tickets released in phases across different tiers, including lower-cost Category 4 seats and “a minimum of 1,000 tickets priced at $60 for every match.”
Which Teams Have Highest Prices?
Resale price data shows that not every match commands the same level of interest, with seats at later games going for far more than the earlier matches. Fans would currently have to pay nearly $8,000 to secure a seat for the July 19 final—compared to the roughly $1,600 face value for the 2022 final.
However, the prices drop significantly when it comes to the group stages, with Saudi Arabia’s June 27 game against Cabo Verde costing $160 as of Friday, according to Ticketdata.com.
Thousands of World Cup Tickets Remain Unsold
With around two weeks to go until the tournament begins, however, many tickets remain unsold, with prices varying wildly online. While some ticket prices have dropped to as little as $100 on resale sites, other batches have popped up on websites like eBay and Craigslist, sometimes for more than double their face value.
Alex Warner, CEO and co-founder of Winventory, an integrated platform that helps ticket holders manage and resell tickets and parking across multiple marketplaces, told Newsweek that the uneven demand for 2026 World Cup tickets partly stems from early pricing decisions and the complexity of attending matches in the U.S.
“A major factor is that initial ticket prices were simply too high and, in many cases, turned buyers off before they fully explored the market,” he said.
Expert Warns of Limited Economic Impact
In March 2025, FIFA released a joint study with the World Trade Organization that said the tournament would bring in $80 billion in gross economic impact, with $30.5 billion of it landing in the U.S.’s pocket.
Yet, while pre-event promises suggest big things in terms of economic impact, host cities have struggled as bookings have not met initial forecasts. Eighty percent of hotels surveyed by the American Hotel and Lodging Association in a report said reservations were behind earlier predictions.
Victor Matheson, a professor of sports economics at College of the Holy Cross, told Newsweek that the “expansion of the tournament to 48 teams has severely reduced the attractiveness of many group stage games,” with more games between teams that are “simply highly unlikely to attract large traveling crowds.”
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