FIFA President Gianni Infantino defended World Cup ticket prices on Wednesday, saying “if we do something wrong, then probably everyone selling tickets in North America is doing something wrong”.
Infantino spoke with reporters during a rare question-and-answer session on the eve of the opening match of an expanded 48-nation, 104-game World Cup tournament. He defended record ticket prices, said FIFA was powerless to get the US government to admit a Somali referee, and praised his ability to get Iran’s national soccer team into the United States.
FIFA priced tickets starting at USD 140 for group-stage games, but regular seats for the July 19 final outside New York were listed at up to USD 8,680 and hospitality seats at up to USD 73,200. It raised prices for the final to USD 10,990 and then USD 32,970.
After much criticism, FIFA offered USD 60 tickets to national federations for their regular supporters. Infantino said 130,000 tickets were offered in that category. Four years ago at the tournament in Qatar, prices ranged from USD 69 to USD 1,607.
“If you sell it at a lower price point,” he said, “in this particular market it would have gone — which is perfectly legal in this country … in secondary markets at much, much, much higher prices and where would the money go then? Well, to those who organise secondary markets or black market activities and not to football.”
Infantino said the average ticket price was below 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.
Major League Baseball’s average World Series ticket price has been USD 350 to USD 400 in recent years and NFL prices averaged USD 230 for the wild-card round, USD 320 for divisional games and USD 450 for conference championships. Infantino said he was unconcerned about ticket probes by attorneys general in California, New Jersey, New York and Texas.
“When it comes to these legal investigations or complaints that were made in some states in the US,” he said, “we are very relaxed about it because before starting to sell six-and-a-half or seven million tickets we check what we do with the best lawyers, with the best experts. If we do something wrong, then probably everyone selling tickets in North America is doing something wrong, as well.”
Infantino 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.
The get-in price on FIFA’s resale site for the World Cup final is USD 9,805. The NBA Finals have had wildly varied get-in prices, ranging from a minimum of about USD 500 for the first two games in San Antonio to about USD 10,000 for Game 3 in New York. Game 4 in New York was much less, dropping to about USD 4,000 on Wednesday.
The Stanley Cup Final this year between teams in Las Vegas and Raleigh, North Carolina, has included a get-in price of at least USD 600 for each of the first four games of the best-of-seven series. “We welcome every investigation,” Infantino said. “We are happy to present everything, and we are happy to make our case.”
FIFA powerless to get US entry for denied Somali referee: Infantino
Infantino said it was unfortunate Somali referee Omar Artan was denied entry to the US.
“We don’t control everything. We try. We’ll discuss, we will speak, we’ll see. Maybe sometimes it’s good as well to just chill, relax,” he said. “We try to solve everything. Sometimes to immediately start screaming and shouting has the opposite effect of finding a solution. Believe me when I tell you, or don’t believe me if you don’t want, but we try always to find solutions, always. But then we need to respect that we are not the kings of the world who can rule over governments and police forces.”
Set to become the first Somali referee at a World Cup, Artan was denied entry to the US at Miami International Airport on Saturday over unspecified “vetting concerns”, US Customs and Border Protection said in a statement, without giving details of the concerns.
“Our world is a very aggressive world and security goes above everything and you need to respect the decisions which are taken,” Infantino said. “We are working behind the scenes.”
Infantino thinks FIFA deserves credit for ensuring Iran’s participation
Infantino praised FIFA for working through details that allow Iran to play in the tournament at a time the US is at war with that country. The Iranian team moved its training camp from the US to Mexico and will fly to the United States just before matches.
“I think it has already been successful to bring Iran to play in America,” he said. “I don’t know who would have managed to do that. And of course everyone here believes it’s the right thing to do. But, again, we don’t live on the moon. We live on planet Earth and you have to deal with different situations.”
Infantino claimed the tournament will be “the biggest event probably in the history of mankind”.
Infantino claims tournament could not have taken place without Donald Trump
“Without his engagement and his involvement I think it would have been impossible — as simple as that, it would’ve been impossible to organise a World Cup in the United States,” Infantino said. “He understood immediately the magnitude of the World Cup, the impact of the World Cup.”
FIFA is projecting USD 11 billion in revenue for the tournament, and Infantino said the governing body could have generated far more.
“We could put everything on pay. We would generate USD 30 billion revenues, probably,” he said. “But then you have billions of people in the world who would not be able to watch the World Cup.”Infantino’s opening comments in Qatar
Four years ago, Infantino scolded critics during a news conference ahead of the opening match in Qatar. He lectured Europeans for criticising Qatar’s human rights record during a bizarre appearance in which he claimed to feel gay, like a woman and a migrant worker, among other odd claims.
Now 56, Infantino has been FIFA president since 2016 and intends to seek another term next year that runs through 2031.
Infantino kept an empty seat at the news conference for Christophe Gleizes, a French freelance reporter given a seven-year prison sentence in Algeria last year over an interview with a soccer official accused of ties to a banned separatist movement.
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