Attendance at the second match of the 2026 World Cup was poor. FIFA is already lying.
There were a lot of empty seats and it had nothing to do with people hanging out in the concourse.
The governing body of international soccer tried to pretend like the lack of fans didn’t stem from the late start time and expensive cost of tickets. We all know the truth…
FIFA must be lying about its poor attendance.
South Korea defeated Czech Republic 2-1 in the second game of the World Cup. However, there were large sections of empty seats at the Akron Stadium in Guadalajara. It was no more than 60% full. That might be an overestimate.
The opening match of the tournament was played in Mexico and Mexico was playing. It was always going to sell out. The same cannot be said for Thursday night. FIFA has to be lying.
The Akron Stadium holds a capacity of 45,664. FIFA announced the official attendance as 44,985. That would mean only 700 seats were empty. Except that was not the case. It wasn’t even close.
You can see it with your eyes.
The stadium was not anywhere close to full. Especially during the second half. And most of the people in the crowd were fans of the home country, Mexico. There were more people wearing El Tri than Czechia and South Korea combined.
When pressed about the poor attendance, FIFA blamed the gaps on the people who hung out in the concourse instead of their seats.
“Official attendance figures reflect the number of tickets scanned and spectators present within the stadium footprint, rather than visual assessments of seating occupancy at any given moment during the match. FIFA works closely with stadium authorities and ticketing teams to ensure all published figures are based on verified operational data. Please note that, during last night’s match in Guadalajara, several ticketed fans could be seen standing in concourses rather than staying in their assigned seats throughout the match.”
Sure, Jan…
World Cup tickets are not cheap.
Only 29 of the 104 World Cup matches were sold out on the eve of the tournament. The other 75 matches had tickets remaining. Some of them more than others.
Demand is not the issue. Cost is.
Tickets for Thursday night’s match between the Czech Republic and South Korea cost $500 in the lower tier. Tickets at the top of the stadium’s bowl were priced at $400. Simply put, that is not affordable. And to make matters worse, a large number of the empty seats appeared to be in the hospitality section. Those corporate sponsor tickets cost more than $5,000 for regular fans.
If you are a casual fan of soccer, you might pay $50-100 to watch two countries you don’t support. You aren’t paying 4X that.
As a result, those seats were empty.
FIFA is using a “dynamic pricing model” for the 2026 World Cup, which has led to outrageous spikes in the cost of tickets. Especially for the high-demand matches. Ordinary fans are priced out. Even President Donald Trump said he “wouldn’t pay it either.”
FIFA President Giannai Infantino defended the pricing strategy as recently as Wednesday. He said that the cost was comparable to those of other major sporting events.
“If we do something wrong, then probably everyone selling tickets in North America is doing something wrong.”
That is true! Everyone selling tickets in North America is doing something wrong. There is a reason why artists and organizations are moving away from platforms like Ticketmaster and StubHub. It is a real issue.
Instead of fixing the problem, FIFA is choosing to lie about attendance. Everyone was just in the concourse!