Tickets for the 2026 World Cup are being sold on a third-party ticket exchange – with up to £46,000 for the final – despite FIFA not putting any on the market yet, Sky News has uncovered.
World football’s governing body has now issued a warning to fans to be “wary” of unofficial websites purporting to already offer tickets after being asked about one platform, Vivid Seats.
We delved deeper into the website after concerns were raised by Chelsea fans about their chairman, Todd Boehly, being an investor and director in Vivid while it also sells tickets overseas for Stamford Bridge matches at inflated prices.
Vivid has listings for matches throughout the World Cup for matches being played in the United States and Canada.
Even a group stage match on the second day of the tournament has regular tickets – some listed in specific rows – being sold for up to £44,112 at the SoFI stadium in Los Angeles.
The tickets listed for the World Cup final on 19 July 2026 range from £4,936 to £46,412 (row 31, lower level 139) at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
Sky News did not buy any tickets.
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Vivid’s website promises: “No matter what you’re looking to spend, Vivid Seats has World Cup tickets to fit your budget.”
But then it says: “Vivid Seats will have World Cup tickets for sale as soon as they are available, usually many months before the actual game.”
In response to our discovery, FIFA cautioned supporters.
“FIFA encourages any fan wishing to purchase tickets for the FIFA World Cup 26 to be wary of non-FIFA official ticketing websites that claim to be selling tickets already and only purchase tickets from the official and legitimate source once those are made available,” the World Cup organisers told Sky News.
FIFA is planning to put World Cup tickets on sale this summer.
Ronan Evain, executive director of Football Supporters Europe, said the ticket listings were “worrying”.
He told Sky News: “It’s unlikely that these tickets have been issued and the relation with the competition organisers is unclear.
“Companies like this either exploit the many loopholes that persist in the ticket sales policy or they get privileged access to tickets through competition organisers or associated parties.
“It’s the responsibility of the competition organiser to ensure that they put in place a transparent ticket distribution policy and sufficient protections, such as drastic limitations on the number of times a ticket can be transferred to someone else, for example.
“Either they get a safe shortcut to get access to tickets at a later stage. Or they are so confident in exploiting the many loopholes that they take limited risk in selling tickets that don’t exist yet.”
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Vivid Seats did not respond to a request for comment. But when asked about the Chelsea ticketing controversy last week, the American company said: “It is important to note that Vivid Seats does not set the base price for tickets sold on its marketplace or receive any revenue from that base price; only the seller sets and receives the base ticket price.”
That comment was issued in response to complaints by Chelsea to the Premier League about Mr Boehly being linked to a website selling tickets beyond Britain for matches.
The Chelsea Supporters’ Trust said Vivid and Mr Boehly were undermining efforts to combat ticket touting.
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Since our report was published on Monday, Chelsea has revealed plans to introduce digital-only tickets from next season in conjunction with Ticketmaster.
The hope is that eventually makes it harder for people to buy up memberships and sell tickets for hiked-up prices.
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In a statement, Chelsea chief revenue officer Casper Stylsvig said the link-up is in part about “continuing to address the issue of ticket touts.”
Chelsea has not commented on concerns about Vivid Seats.
In response to our questions about Chelsea tickets, Vivid said: “Vivid Seats respectfully adheres to the laws that are in place in the United Kingdom and is not in violation of any regulations around EPL tickets.”
