Trump called the 2026 World Cup history’s ‘most successful.’ Problems cloud ticket sales
PolitiFact – Rulings and Stories — 2026-06-12 15:39:00 — www.politifact.com
Trump’s World Cup Boast: Fact-Checking Claims of “Most Successful” Ticket Sales
President Donald Trump has once again reached for superlatives, calling the 2026 World Cup the “most successful World Cup they’ve ever had” and claiming, “They’ve never sold tickets at that level. They’ve never sold that many tickets so quickly.” He made similar statements in May, touting it as “the most successful they’ve ever had ticket-wise.”
While it’s true that the 2026 tournament is historic in scale—with 48 teams and 104 games across North America—Trump’s claims gloss over key context. FIFA President Gianni Infantino announced over 6 million tickets sold as of June 10, a record in raw numbers. However, experts note that this is largely because the tournament has expanded to include more teams and matches than ever before. Previous World Cups had a maximum of 32 teams and 64 matches, meaning there are simply more tickets available for sale in 2026.
Soccer historians and analysts caution that comparing ticket sales across tournaments is misleading. “There are far more games and therefore tickets to be sold,” said Leander Schaerlaeckens, a soccer columnist and university lecturer, highlighting the false equivalency in Trump’s comparison.
Moreover, not all matches are sold out, and the ticketing process has been marred by controversy. Many fans have been priced out, with the cheapest resale tickets for opening round matches listed at $242 and up, despite FIFA advertising $60 tickets that were extremely limited. Dynamic pricing has pushed prices even higher, and consumer complaints have triggered investigations in multiple states.
In summary, while the 2026 World Cup is breaking records for total tickets sold, Trump’s sweeping claims ignore the expanded scale of the event and the ongoing issues with ticket accessibility and pricing. The numbers alone don’t tell the full story, and Trump’s statements exaggerate the success by omitting these crucial details.
Source: https://www.politifact.com/article/2026/jun/12/World-cup-FIFA-tickets-pricing-Trump/