Ticket Prices Are Considered Expensive, Producing 700 Empty Seats, This is FIFA's Explanation

JAKARTA - The 2026 World Cup has started since June 11 with the victory of the Mexican National Team over the South African National Team 2-0. The Azteca Stadium in Mexico City has a capacity of 45,664 seats that was attended by 44,985 people who witnessed the revival of the South Korean National Team against the Czech Republic National Team in a 2-1 victory.

The difference of 700 seats that are still empty in the stadium is the focus of netizens. Netizens assess that the large number of empty seats is due to the high price of admission tickets for less popular matches. The admission ticket is no less than 300 US dollars.

The large number of reports related to the entrance ticket price turned out to be a concern for FIFA. And the most prestigious institution in the world of football explained in detail how this could happen through an official statement in response to concerns about the presence of spectators and the negative image associated with their presence.

"The official attendance figure reflects the number of tickets scanned and spectators present inside the stadium area, not a visual assessment of seat occupancy at a given time during the match," the statement read.

"FIFA works closely with stadium authorities and ticket sales teams to ensure that all published figures are based on verified operational data."

"Please note that, during last night's match in Guadalajara, some fans who had tickets were seen standing in the aisles instead of staying in their designated seats throughout the match."

FIFA insists that interest in buying match tickets has never been this high, ten times more than previous tournaments.

"You must have heard there has been a lot of discussion about the sale of World Cup tickets," President Gianni Infantino said in April.

"We received 500 million ticket requests. In the last two World Cups combined, we received 50 million ticket requests. This time, 500 million."