The Fifa World Cup represents the pinnacle of the world’s most popular game.
For decades, the tournament has been marketed as a month-long spectacle in which borders dissolve and billions of people gather - be it in front of the television set, or a cafe, pub, or at the stadium itself - to witness who will lift its most coveted prize. And even though the World Cup has almost always been a playground for the rich and famous, this year's tournament - running from 11 June to 19 July 2026 in the United States, Canada, and Mexico - feels a little different.
The tournament - with three countries hosting, 48 countries competing, and promised to be the biggest the world has ever known - continues to be overshadowed by eye-watering ticket prices, tightening border controls, travel restrictions, and growing authoritarianism in the US.
The uncertainty around travel and ticketing costs, combined with a volatile domestic environment, has left fans and followers feeling somewhat disheartened.
Tickets for the World Cup have always been a prized commodity.
Fans have often saved up for years ahead of a tournament and wait for Fifa, football's world governing body, to open digital windows to enter ticket lotteries for a shot at a World Cup ticket.
But even before fans reach the point of buying tickets, Fifa's decision to stage the event across three vast countries, with long distances between them, means the tournament has felt fragmented from the outset.
There is neither a unified cultural identity nor a geographic specificity that would make the tournament feel as cohesive as it did when South Africa, Brazil or Qatar hosted.
Even then, football is football, and fans will traverse the earth to watch their beloved teams.
But travelling to the US for many fans will mean long and expensive transatlantic flights, which could spike further given the jet fuel shortages that could be triggered by the US-Israeli war on Iran. Once in the US, travelling to and from venues across the country would, in most cases, require additional plane or train tickets, as well as accommodation.
Some fans may even need to travel between the US, Mexico and Canada if they want to see a variety of matches and teams, which would compound costs even further.
That doesn't mean there isn't demand for the tournament.
In the first round of sales in late 2025, Fifa received around 20 million ticket requests. By January 2026, Fifa reported having received 500 million ticket requests.
Outside the host countries, the highest number of applications came from fans in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, England, Germany, Portugal, and Spain.
But whereas prior World Cups hosted in South Africa, Brazil, Russia, and Qatar offered subsidised ticket rates for local residents, there has been no federal equivalent for this year's event.
Tickets for the games in the US have been the most expensive, but prices in Canada and Mexico are not been far behind.
CNN reported that prices for the tournament opener in Mexico during the second round of sales in April 2026 ranged from $3,000 to $10,000.
And despite some reductions over the past several weeks due to a drop in demand and resale-market volatility, ticket prices have put the tournament beyond the reach of even its most loyal neighbourhood supporters. "I know dozens of people who have travelled to World Cups around the world, or even to the Olympics in Paris, but very few people I know have bought tickets for this one," Jennifer Muller, a board member of Cloud 9, the supporters group for the New York-New Jersey-based Gotham Football Club, told Middle East Eye. Muller's experience isn't unique. Fans across the US have expressed disappointment over the prices. In Atlanta, a local sports store owner told 285South that fans were buying tickets that cost as much as a monthly mortgage payment.
In December 2025, Fifa introduced a new batch of entry-tier tickets for fans of all national teams participating in the tournament, priced at $60, but observers described the measure as little more than a gimmick, given that it only amounted to a few hundred tickets per game.
Likewise, in response to mounting criticism over questions about affordability and access, New York City announced just this week that it would reserve 1,000 tickets for residents at $50 each through a lottery system.
