2026 FIFA World Cup Ticket Guide

by Charles Polanski… last update April 16th, 2025

LATEST NEWS:
September 19th, 2025: The VISA Presale Draw entry period ended at 8 AM PDT. Two bits of news:
1) FIFA’s Ticket Resale platform launches some time on October 2nd, 2025!
2) More than 4.5 million fans submitted VISA Presale Draw entries. Compare this to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar’s first phase with 22 million applications. But that was a different type of ticket draw and didn’t require a VISA card. More info: https://www.fifa.com/en/tournaments/mens/worldcup/canadamexicousa2026/articles/tickets-visa-presale-draw-news

September 12th, 2025: Big news came on September 3rd with some more details coming out since and with the start of the Visa Presale Draw on September 10th. Here are some key tidbits:
1) Tickets start at $60 and go all the way up to $6,730 for CAT1 to Final match.
2) Variable pricing will cause ticket prices to go up or down between ticket phases.
3) A second draw (Oct. 27-31) and purchase phase (mid-Nov to early Dec.) will happen before the World Cup Draw on 12/5.
4) A Mid-December 2025 Random Selection Draw will occur. We’ll finally know where 46 of the teams are playing. We’ll also know the final 6 nations battling for the final 2 spots and where they’ll play if they win their inter-confederation playoff.
5) Last-Minute Sales closer to the start of the tournament.
6) People can resell on FIFA’s official platform with NO PRICE CAP. At least people can trust tickets on the FIFA platform are legit and will work, but the free market will decide the price. For many matches this will mean things get expensive, others will be cheap, I think. People lucky enough to get retail price tickets can resell for a nice profit unless it’s an unpopular match.
7) The official ticket rules now state that only one ticket application can come from each household. FIFA’s definition of a household is someone sharing the same postal address. Though FIFA hasn’t enforced people submitting extra applications under different emails, although some say they were blacklisted for 2022 World Cup tickets for doing so, there’s always a chance all applications from one address will be cancelled. I always advocate playing by the rules and not taking any chances.
8) American Airlines AAdvantage Members can buy tickets with miles during a special program on Oct. 13-15, 2025. Time based on membership tier. Another phase will open in Winter 2025 (perhaps December). More info: https://www.aavacations.com/fifa-wc-26/fifa-coming-soon

July 31st, 2025: We now know the first application window is from September 10-19 and ticket purchase windows will be issued throughout October. (source: https://www.fifa.com/en/tournaments/mens/worldcup/canadamexicousa2026/articles/visa-presale-draw-to-start-first-phase-of-fifa-world-cup-26-ticket-sales). Also, ONLY VISA cards can be used to buy tickets in this sales phase! https://gpcustomersupportfwc2026.tickets.fifa.com/hc/en-gb/articles/29230298680733-2-Which-Visa-cards-can-be-used-to-apply-for-the-Visa-Presale-Draw

There is a rumor from ESPN that the World Cup draw will take place on December 5th in Las Vegas but there’s been no official announcement. Then, the team-by-team schedules will be known with tickets going on sale shortly thereafter. Everyone will finally know who is playing in every match.

July 15th, 2025: FIFA has announced the “first draw application window will open on Wednesday,” September 10th, 2025. More details below on what this means for all important FIFA ticket dates and the World Cup Draw (teams get place into groups and stadiums). The draw will now be in December, probably on a Friday, my guess being December 5th. (source: https://www.fifa.com/en/tournaments/mens/worldcup/canadamexicousa2026/articles/ticket-launch-september-2025)
But another page claims we are entering a draw to earn a time slot to login and purchase tickets. (source: https://gpcustomersupportfwc2026.tickets.fifa.com/hc/en-gb/articles/28803794672669-2-When-will-I-have-the-first-opportunity-to-purchase-FIFA-World-Cup-26-tickets). This would be different from doing a random draw for tickets and then finding out later which tickets you got.

July 13th, 2025: Single match hospitality tickets are now available for most matches in the first four rounds except for the host nation teams. The host nation 4-match plans, 2-match plans, and 8-match plans are no longer available. They might become available later on.

April 16th, 2025: FIFA Hospitality now offering a 2-match series where one match must be on a weekday and no host nation’s involved. The best thing about the brochure are the maps and the ticket prices: https://fifa.vipfanportal.com/bookmarks/preview.2-match.offering.7081. Hospitality starting at $1,225.

April 3rd, 2025: FIFA Collect has begun offering knockout match Right-to-Buy tickets (Matches 73-104). Look at the options here: https://collect.fifa.com/marketplace?tags=right-to-buy

April 3rd, 2025: If you buy a Super Ticket Pack of (20) 2025 Club World Cup matches, you earn a RTB a ticket to the final match of the 2026 World Cup. If you buy a Ticket Pack of (2)-(3) 2025 Club World Cup matches, you earn a RTB to a 2026 World Cup match: https://inside.fifa.com/organisation/media-releases/ticket-packages-club-world-cup-2025-guaranteed-access-world-cup-26

I’ve put this together to help friends and family get tickets to the USA Soccer Team’s matches at the 2026 FIFA World Cup…and tickets to other matches. Feel free to share this with others (but the more you share, the less secret this becomes and the harder for you to get tickets! That was my dilemma, as well!) I’ve attended the 1994, 2010, 2014, 2018, and 2022 World Cups and have learned quite a bit over those years. (I also went to the 2023 Women’s World Cup, but tickets were easy and cheap down under).

IMPORTANT: FIFA has released very little official information about World Cup tickets. I’ll keep the page updated as I learn more.

QUICK SUMMARY OF MAIN WAYS TO GET 2026 World Cup tickets:

  1. FIFA Hospitality Tickets
    • EXPENSIVE but GUARANTEED way to get tickets.
  2. National Soccer Federation Tickets
    • FIFA gives a small percentage of tickets to the US Soccer Federation and other National Federations for their matches.
    • US Soccer tickets will be hard to get and you’ll likely enter a hard-to-win lottery.
  3. FIFA
  4. FIFA Collect
    • You can buy packs of digital FIFA cards that can lead to a RTB (Right-To-Buy) 2 tickets to a particular World Cup match.
    • You can also buy someone else’s RTB that they’ve earned.
    • Expensive and unclear what tickets you can choose from for the match you have a right to.
  5. Resale
    • This resale platform will launch on October 2nd, 2025. Go to FIFA.com/tickets at that time.
    • FIFA has started an official resale platform for the most recent World Cups where you can buy and sell tickets.
    • For the first time, you can resale your ticket for whatever price you want on the FIFA platform. This is great for people looking to make money on tickets and for the free market. But this can mean some high prices for popular matches.

DETAILED LOOK AT MAIN WAYS TO GET 2026 World Cup tickets:

  1. A great guide from the famous Eagleman. He’s been to every World Cup since 1994, and nearly every US Soccer match (at least he’s always there in the stands when I watch in person or at home): https://www.eaglemansoccer.com/tickets-1
  2. FIFA Hospitality Tickets via On Location
    • People that paid a $500 refundable deposit are getting offered a first crack at tickets since late January 2025. They had 40,000 people who did the deposits to reach out to. You can register your interest (for free) and they’ll eventually get to you (or they’ll setup the website where you can buy first-come-first-served later, not sure when): https://www.fifa.com/en/tournaments/mens/worldcup/canadamexicousa2026/hospitality-register-interest
    • Hospitality comes with free food, drinks, and alcohol in a special area accessible before and after the match (usually for 2 hours each way). Most matches also open up this area during half time. Suites and above always have food and drink available nearby.
    • Currently, you can only order singe match, 4-match follow-your team, 4-match group stage, venue bundles of hospitality tickets, or 8-match bundles with at least 4 groud stage tickets and any other 4 matches including the Final.
      • The 4-match group stage bundle requires two to be weekday matches.
      • They have 4-match bundles where you can follow the team of your choice. This gets you the tickets to a team’s 3 group-stage matches and their round-of-32 match, if they advance. If they don’t advance, you go to the winner of their group’s round-of-32 match.
        • They have most teams but not the most popular including: Mexico, USA, Canada, Brazil, and Argentina.
        • The single matches don’t include any host country matches and only include the first 4 rounds, for now.
    • Here is the brochure for more details.
    • If you were to buy, you pay first 3rd up front, second 3rd in the summer, and final 3rd in early 2026.
    • Later on you’ll be able to buy tickets to all individual matches. Hospitality tickets rarely sell out early on but very popular matches can get sold out even with hospitality.
  3. National Soccer Federation Tickets
    • FIFA gives a small percentage of tickets to the US Soccer Federation and other National Federations for their matches.
    • Go here to join at any level, including a free membership: https://www.ussoccer.com/insiders
    • US Soccer tickets will be hard to get and you’ll likely enter a hard-to-win lottery.
    • The higher/more-expensive your membership tier is with US Soccer, the better your chance to win tickets to the lottery.
    • In the past, the lottery gave you the right to buy up to 6 tickets, but this time it will likely only be 2 tickets (or at most, maybe 4), but US Soccer is still awaiting word from FIFA on how many tickets FIFA is giving them.
    • They will cost the same as retail FIFA tickets but we’re still awaiting word on those.
    • The Captains Circle is highly recommended as a way to boost your chances of getting tickets. And you probably only get 2 tickets per account, if you win the lottery. I’d recommend Supporters Circle at a bare minimum.
    • These also are restricted to one application per household (share the same postal address).
    • Standard Tier List (over 500,000 total members across various tiers)
      • Free
      • Premium ($45/yr)
      • Premium Family ($85/yr)
      • VIP Insider ($185/yr).
    • Circle Insider Tier List
      • Supporters Circle ($500/yr) 100% tax deductible. About 1,000 members and growing daily.
      • Captains Circle ($1,000/yr) $798 tax deductible. About 500 members.
      • Keepers Circle (TBD but between Captains and Coaches). No members yet. Could be the perfect sweet spot, once they announce it.
      • Coaches Circle ($5,000/yr) $4,548 tax deductible. A “couple hundred” members.
      • President Circle ($10,000/yr) $9,348 tax deductible. 50 members.
    • This is how ticket disbursement was done in 2022. Not sure how things will be tweaked in 2026, but I have been told directly by US Soccer that the higher your membership, the better your chance. I was in Group A and still didn’t win the lottery.
  4. FIFA
    • Register your interest to keep updated here: http://fifa.com/tickets
    • The first draw application window opens Wednesday, September 10th, 2025. This might mean all of Phase 1 has started as with previous World Cups. Based off the 2022 World Cup timeline (source: https://www.fifa.com/en/articles/sales-phases-en) combined with the draw happening some time in December, that would mean the following:
      • There could be different options available. Single matches should be an option, but they might also have venue series and team series tickets. Team series tickets in the past have offered options of the first 3 matches on up to the final as a full 7 match option. They are known as TST-3, TST-4, TST-5, TST-6, and TST-7. You get to watch all your teams guaranteed group stage matches and any of their knockout stage matches. But if they get knocked out, you still get to go to the match of the team that knocked them out and so on. If they get knocked out in the group stage, you watch the winner of the group’s knockout matches (or whomever knocks them out until your TST is done).
      • You may have from Sep. 10-30 to submit your application for tickets for this random draw. The results of your application will then be made known between Oct. 1 to Nov. 9.
      • The First-Come First-Served (FCFS) part of Phase 1 may then run between Nov. 10-18 or up to 3 days before the draw, perhaps Dec. 2. This is where any tickets made available during the random draw but not claimed and paid for by Nov. 9 can be bought. You may even know where your exact seat will be when you add it to your shopping cart. They usually don’t make all tickets available in this phase.
        • They’ll likely hold several random draw (aka lottery) phases you can enter.
        • It can be hard to win a lottery ticket to popular matches, especially for knockout matches.
      • Sales Phase 2 may now be opening 4 days after the draw, so perhaps Dec. 9, 16, or 23.
        • The random draw (lottery) phase could run from Dec. 9/16/23-Dec. 22/29, 2025/Jan. 5, 2026.
        • The First-Come First-Served (FCFS) part of Phase 2 could run from Feb. 25/Mar.4/11-April 8/15/22, 2026.
        • They’ll eventually make tickets available first-come-first-served. This Last-Minute Sales Phase could run from April 10 to July 19, 2026 (day of the Final). Qatar had this phase open 8 weeks and 6 days before the opener.
    • This will be the cheapest option but the prices are not certain, yet. Travel Futbol Fan’s best guess are:
      • Category 1 is best down to Category 4. “Special” may be Hospitality and similar.
      • Bid Book are the prices speculated by the official 2026 World Cup Bid Book from 2018 that the USA, Mexico, and Canada submitted with their World Cup bid. But we’ve experienced COVID and higher than predicted inflation since their estimates!
      • Quinto Partido and GQ are two magazines that speculated. The final section is TFF’s predictions.
      • My best guess at the prices are currently:
        • Group Stage
          • Category 1 (Cat1): $800
          • Cat2: $600
          • Cat3: $320
          • Cat4: $60
          • Hospitality/Special Cheapest: $2,000
        • Opening Matches (Mexico is the first match but the USA, and Canada “Opening matches” might also have this premium)
          • Cat1: $1,600
          • Cat2: $1,200
          • Cat3: $600
          • Cat4: $150
          • Hospitality/Special Cheapest: $2,500
        • Round of 32
          • Cat1: $1,000
          • Cat2: $750
          • Cat3: $480
          • Cat4: $90
          • Hospitality/Special Cheapest: $3,000
        • Round of 16
          • Cat1: $1,400
          • Cat2: $1,000
          • Cat3: $700
          • Cat4: $130
          • Hospitality/Special Cheapest: $4,500
        • Quarterfinals
          • Cat1: $2,000
          • Cat2: $1,500
          • Cat3: $1,050
          • Cat4: $200
          • Hospitality/Special Cheapest: $7,000
        • Semifinals
          • Cat1: $3,000
          • Cat2: $2,250
          • Cat3: $1,600
          • Cat4: $300
          • Hospitality/Special Cheapest: $
        • Third-place Match
          • Cat1: $1,000
          • Cat2: $750
          • Cat3: $480
          • Cat4: $90
          • Hospitality/Special Cheapest: $3,000
        • Final
          • Cat1: $6,730 (current price for Visa Presale Draw)
          • Cat2: $4,000
          • Cat3: $3,000
          • Cat4: $600
          • Hospitality/Special Cheapest: $15,500
    • Check the Eagleman link for when and what the different phases might be until we hear the real info from FIFA.
  5. FIFA Collect
  6. American Airlines AAdvantage Members
    • Members can use miles for a special purchase period between Oct. 13-15, 2025.
    • Site: https://www.aavacations.com/fifa-wc-26/fifa-coming-soon
    • Oct. 13 at 8 AM PDT
      • ConciergeKey
      • AAdvantage Executive Platinum
    • Oct. 14 at 8 AM PDT
      • AAdvantage Platinum Pro
      • AAdvantage Platinum
      • AAdvantage Gold
    • Oct. 15 at 8 AM PDT
      • AAdvantage member
    • There will be another phase in Winter 2025 to buy tickets with miles. Perhaps December? That’s the only month officially in Winter for the remainder of 2025.