Mexico City, Jun 10 (AP) FIFA President Gianni Infantino on Wednesday defended World Cup ticket prices, saying that “if we are doing something wrong, everyone in North America is doing something wrong”.
FIFA priced tickets starting at USD 140 for the 48-nation, 104-game tournament that starts Thursday and priced regular seats up to USD 8,680 for the July 19 final in New Jersey. It raised prices for the final to USD 10,990 and then USD 32,970.
After criticism, FIFA offered a small amount of USD 60 tickets to national federations for their regular supporters.
Infantino said the average ticket price was under USD 500 for the tournament and was comparable to other US sports during their playoffs, a claim that while true for resale prices does not appear
to be accurate for list prices.
He said he was unconcerned about investigations by attorneys general in California, New Jersey, New York and Texas.
Infantino said that the secondary ticket market is beyond his organization’s control when it comes to the large prices fans are seeing for World Cup games. He pointed to the NBA Finals between the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs as an example of how other major American sporting events are experiencing a similar surge in prices.
“We are very relaxed about it because before starting to sell 6.5 million or 7 million tickets we check what we do with the best lawyers,” he said. “We welcome every investigation.” Infantino also admitted FIFA was powerless to get the US to admit entry to Somali referee Omar Artan and said people “should chill”.
“We are not the kings of the world,” Infantini said. (AP) SCY SCY
