While the 2026 World Cup officially comes to a close on Sunday at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., the attorney general of New Jersey won’t stop her investigation into FIFA and its ticketing methods when the final whistle sounds.
In a report published Friday, New Jersey AG Jennifer Davenport told The Athletic that her office will continue to look at concerns that she and her New York counterpart, Letitia James, raised in May about the ways FIFA conducted the ticket-buying process for the eight matches hosted at MetLife Stadium during the 39-day tournament.
Those eight matches include the Sunday final, which pits Argentina against Spain.
In a joint news release issued in May, the attorneys general said they were looking into reports that FIFA allegedly hiked prices, changed ticketing maps after selling tickets to the public and created artificial scarcity.
Davenport addressed her continuing mission to protect consumers with The Athletic.
“For the initial ticket sales, FIFA seat maps divided the stadium into four zones, categories one through four,” Davenport said. “The category one seats were the most desirable. But after fans had already bought tickets, FIFA created new zones, which included a front row in a category, made up of the most desirable seats within the categories.
“We saw the reports indicating that there were fans who bought the tickets before these new zones were introduced but were then excluded from the seats and instead assigned less desirable seats. We also saw reports that some fans didn’t receive the tickets in the category they paid for.”
New Jersey and New York aren’t the only places where FIFA’s ticketing practices have come under fire. Officials in California and Texas also have been investigating claims regarding the 2026 World Cup.
In Frankfurt, Germany, on Tuesday, a court called FIFA’s practices on ticket resale outlet Ticombo “manipulative” and issued an injunction designed to force FIFA to stop selling tickets there. Per Newsweek, the court threatened to fine and/or imprison FIFA president Gianni Infantino and secretary general Mattias Grafstrom if they do not comply.
–Field Level Media
