With 90 days until the opening kick in Mexico City, nearly 70 members of the United States Congress have delivered a pointed message to the world’s most powerful soccer organization: the 2026 FIFA World Cup is becoming a tournament that ordinary fans cannot afford to attend—and FIFA needs to fix it now.
Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove of California led 69 members of Congress in urging FIFA to reduce the cost of tickets for the 2026 World Cup, which have soared in part due to the use of dynamic pricing—a system being applied to the World Cup for the first time in the tournament’s history.
The letter, dated March 10 and addressed directly to FIFA President Gianni Infantino, was signed by lawmakers representing districts in 23 states—including at least one member from each of the 11 U.S. host cities.
“The extreme high demand for World Cup tickets should not be a green light for price gouging at the expense of the people who make the World Cup the most-watched sporting event in the world,” the group wrote.
FIFA did not respond to requests for comment on the letter from U.S. lawmakers.
Dynamic Pricing and Soaring Costs
FIFA is using dynamic pricing for the first time at this year’s World Cup—a system that allows ticket costs to fluctuate based on real-time demand, inventory levels, and the popularity of a given match.
Tickets on FIFA's official resale platform have skyrocketed as a result.
The figures behind Congress’s concern are staggering. While official FIFA face value for the final at MetLife Stadium ranges from $2,030 to $6,730—already four times the equivalent price at Qatar 2022—the real cost of attending has climbed far beyond that. FIFA’s own official resale platform lists final tickets starting at $9,775, with the most expensive single seat documented at $230,000—on FIFA’s own website, where the governing body collects a 30 percent commission on every transaction.
On StubHub, the average resale price for a final ticket has reached $22,319, with individual listings documented above $38,000. Hospitality packages for all eight MetLife Stadium matches, including the final, range from $3,500 to $73,200 per person. For comparison, the most expensive ticket to the 1994 World Cup final—the last time the United States hosted the tournament—cost $475.
The lawmakers described FIFA’s decision to abandon the traditional static pricing model as one that “prioritises revenue maximisation over accessibility for fans and host community residents,” and warned that the consequences of dynamic pricing will make the 2026 World Cup “the most financially exclusionary and inaccessible” in the tournament’s history.
Host Cities Left Holding the Bill
The congressional letter raised a second major concern that has been quietly building for months: FIFA’s financial relationship with its own host cities. The letter highlights FIFA’s lack of financial support for fan festivals—a shortfall that has forced some cities to scale back or privatize events originally intended to make World Cup celebrations more accessible to residents who cannot afford match tickets.
Kamlager-Dove, whose district is near SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, put the problem in blunt terms: “I spoke with my constituents in Los Angeles and asked: ‘What is FIFA paying for? How are they helping?’ The answer was: ‘They are doing nothing. Everything falls on the city: security, fan events, partnership programs, transportation. So the question is: what is the benefit for the city? If someone takes resources and provides no benefit, what good is it other than being a host city? The answer: none.’”
The letter called on FIFA to offer financial relief to host cities struggling with the costs of staging World Cup games—costs that have led to fan festivals being canceled in some locations in an effort to reduce municipal spending. Kamlager-Dove told The Athletic that “everyone is pissed” over the situation, adding: “Fans that I’ve talked to are pissed. Local vendors and restaurants and local business owners that I’ve talked to are irritated.”
What Congress Is Asking FIFA to Do
The letter asks FIFA two specific questions: whether it will commit to returning to a static pricing model in future tournaments in light of the accessibility concerns raised by the 2026 World Cup, and whether FIFA will implement changes to support host cities with fan festivals—or adjust sponsorship limitations so host city committees can fundraise and hold public tournament events for fans who cannot attend games.
The lawmakers also urged FIFA to take “immediate corrective action to address the harms caused by its use of dynamic pricing, which has transformed the world’s largest sporting event into an exclusionary, profit-driven enterprise at the direct expense of fans, host communities, and public taxpayers.”
The Broader Context
The congressional letter arrives at a moment when the 2026 World Cup is navigating an extraordinary combination of off-field complications.
Iran’s withdrawal following the killing of Supreme Leader Khamenei in U.S.-Israeli airstrikes has left Group G unresolved, with 90 days to the opening. FIFA cancelled 800 of 2,000 originally reserved hotel rooms in Mexico City alone—a figure that tournament organizers attributed to administrative adjustments, but that raised questions about planning capacity.
For South Florida—where the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens is one of the tournament’s marquee venues, hosting matches through the knockout rounds—the pricing debate is intensely local. Miami’s large Latin American diaspora communities, including hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan, Colombian, Cuban, and Argentine fans who have dreamed of attending a World Cup on American soil, are among those most directly priced out by a dynamic system that rewards speed and wealth over loyalty and passion.
FIFA’s Congress is scheduled for April 30—six weeks before the tournament opens. Whether the organization responds to the congressional letter before that date or uses its Congress meeting to address the pricing controversy will signal how seriously Gianni Infantino’s organization intends to take the concerns of the country hosting the majority of its matches.
