Have you ever waited months for a big trip only to feel like the goalposts kept moving? That is exactly how a lot of fans feel right now. The 2026 World Cup is finally here. But between FIFA, the USA hosting duties and a wave of visa issues, this tournament has been making headlines for reasons that have nothing to do with football.
Let’s walk through what has actually been going on. It is a lot. But it is worth understanding if you care about the game.
Ticket prices that kept climbing
For the first time ever FIFA used something called dynamic pricing for World Cup tickets. That means prices change based on demand, a bit like how flight prices go up the longer you wait to book. Group stage tickets started at $60. A final ticket started at $6,730.
Compare that to past tournaments. The 1994 USA World Cup had tickets between $25 and $475. Qatar 2022 ranged from about $69 to $1,607. This time the top price kept rising. By April some final tickets were going for $10,990. Some front row seats were reported as high as $30,000. Even President Trump said he would not pay $1,000 for cheap seats at the US opener against Paraguay.
Fan groups were furious. Football Supporters Europe and Euroconsumers said FIFA holds a monopoly over ticket sales and used that power against fans. After backlash FIFA cut some prices to $60. But fan groups said those cheap tickets were already gone before general sale even started. By their math, going to eight matches now costs around £5,225 at the lowest tier. That is roughly triple what it cost at Qatar 2022.
Empty seats and seating mix-ups
There is also a problem with what fans actually got for their money. Many bought Category 1 or 2 tickets based on FIFA’s seating maps. Then they showed up and found themselves in totally different sections. Some ended up in corners or upper decks that were marked as cheaper areas on the original map.
This got serious fast. In May 2026 California’s Attorney General sent FIFA a letter asking how seat categories were decided. Then on May 27 the Attorneys General of New York and New Jersey jointly subpoenaed FIFA over its pricing. They said 2026 prices “far exceeded the prices for any previous World Cup tournament”. Class action lawsuits are expected to continue well after the tournament ends even though FIFA is set to make at least $11 billion from it.
Then came the empty seats. On opening day the Mexico vs South Africa match at Estadio Azteca looked packed. But South Korea’s win over Czechia showed entire rows of empty seats on TV — even though FIFA reported the stadium was nearly full. Infantino kept saying every match was sold out. The pictures told a different story.
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The visa crisis fans did not see coming
Here is where things get really tough for ordinary fans. In January 2026 the US State Department froze visa applications from 75 countries. This was part of a wider screening review. Officers now have to check things like an applicant’s age, health, English skills and whether they might need public support while in the US.
Fans from Brazil, Morocco, Colombia, Senegal, Egypt and many other countries were affected. African fan bases — usually a huge traveling presence at World Cups — are expected to shrink a lot because of this. More than 40 members of Moroccan supporter groups were denied US visas. This happened even though they had tickets and hotel bookings already sorted.
FIFA’s response did not go down well either. When one fan was denied entry a FIFA spokesperson basically said it was not FIFA’s problem. This is a big shift from 2025 when a US official said “everyone will be welcome in Canada, Mexico and the United States” and travel would be smooth.
Over 120 immigrants’ rights groups issued a warning. They said fans, players, journalists and visitors could face serious rights problems. ICE agents and US immigration officers are confirmed to be present at stadiums for security. This caused real worry among stadium workers. Workers at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles even voted to strike over fears that ICE could detain workers or their families. They eventually reached an agreement letting them walk off if they felt threatened.
The knock-on effect is already visible. Fans from Germany, France, the UK, Italy, Nigeria, Ghana, Morocco, Egypt, Senegal and Cameroon have been cancelling trips to cities like Las Vegas, Seattle and Philadelphia. This is happening because of visa delays, denials and fear of enforcement. FIFA does offer something called the PASS program for faster visa interviews. But it does not guarantee approval.
Heat, Iran, and the bigger picture
On top of all this there is the heat. Back in January 2025 Queen’s University Belfast warned that conditions in most host cities would be hotter than Qatar’s winter World Cup. FIFA’s response was to add three-minute hydration breaks each half. Critics pointed out these breaks also work great for TV ad breaks. Scientists warned 14 of the 16 stadiums could hit dangerous heat levels and asked for the breaks to be doubled to six minutes.
Then there is Iran. The US and Iran are formally at war right now. Iran’s team can only stay in Mexico during the tournament. Iranian fans are banned from entering the US entirely. This is one of the strangest situations in World Cup history.
Author Jules Boykoff summed up the mood well. He described the situation as a World Cup that, despite having a record number of teams, feels more like “a World Cup of exclusion than inclusion.” Many of these issues come from US government policy rather than FIFA itself. But critics say FIFA chose to bring the tournament here and could have pushed back harder once the warning signs appeared.
At the end of the day football is supposed to bring people together. But this tournament has shown how money, politics and policy can get in the way of that. Between FIFA’s pricing choices, the realities of hosting in the USA, and the visa issues facing fans from around the world, this World Cup will be remembered for a lot more than just the scorelines.
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