World Cup 2026: Trump criticizes FIFA tickets cost, says he 'wouldn’t pay $1,000 to attend US match'

Donald Trump has questioned the value of four-figure World Cup tickets for matches involving the United States, telling the New York Post that “I wouldn’t pay it either, to be honest.”

The remark came in a phone interview with the Post, with Trump claiming he “did not know that number” for the USMNT’s opening match against Paraguay.

In December, FIFA established a base price for Category 3 tickets—the cheapest available to most fans, given the small swathe of Category 4 seats at the tournament—of $1,120, according to the Guardian’s reporting at the time.

Trump said he was unaware of the prices football fans are being asked to pay to watch a group-play match at the World Cup.

“I did not know that number,” Trump told The New York Post. “I would certainly like to be there, but I wouldn’t pay it either, to be honest with you.”

Earlier this week, FIFA President Gianni Infantino defended the cost of seats for the World Cup, saying they were in line with prices for major US sporting events.

“We have 25% of the group stage tickets, which can be bought for less than $300,” Infantino said. “You cannot go to watch in the US a college game, not even speaking about a top professional game of a certain level, for less than $300. And this is the World Cup.”

As reported, the average cost of a ‌ticket for the World Cup final on July 19 in East Rutherford, New Jersey, is $13,000, and it was $1,600 for the 2022 final in Qatar.

Trump is worried the pricing will shut out working-class Americans from being able to attend a game.

“If people from Queens and Brooklyn and all of the people that love Donald Trump can’t go, I would be disappointed, but, you know, at the same time, it’s an amazing success,” he said of the World Cup that he helped land for the US during his first term as president. 

“I would like to be able to have the people that voted for me to be able to go.”