World Cup: US was meant to be safe pair of hands but tournament is already turning sour

Fifa boss Gianni Infantino leads the World Cup tournament into America's challenging political climate. Image / Herald

After the controversies of Russia and Qatar, this World Cup was supposed to be the easy one. “Low risk and operational certainty,” the United States, Canada and Mexico promised in a 530-page bid proposal filed in March 2018. “With 23 world-class stadiums and 150 training sites already built and operating, we are ready to host,” wrote US Soccer’s then-president, Carlos Cordeiro.

Headline pledges of “Unity, Certainty, Opportunity” have not aged well. Instead, political tensions rage between once cordial hosts, contractors talk of budget cuts and, worst of all, a global football fanbase is alienated by unprecedented US price gouging.

The most expensive major event in history kicks off in six weeks. Hassles will prove worthwhile for Fifa and Gianni Infantino as the tournament secures US$11 billion ($18.6b) revenues for its members.

But the sheer scale of staging across North America, with long-haul travel, differing tax regimes and rocketing operational costs, has posed more headaches than any of the chief protagonists had anticipated.

Here Telegraph Sport explores why …

Unexpected American backlash

Despite a perception among some figures at the top of Fifa that the body’s most ferocious critics are the British media, the most damning headlines in recent weeks have been published in the US. “The World Cup has become a crime,” screamed one headline from the Boston Globe. The New Yorker also published an article questioning whether dynamic pricing was “ruining” the tournament.

The US is well accustomed to profiteering, with fans paying exorbitant prices for seats at the NFL and NBA. Nevertheless, there has been obvious embarrassment since the New York Times-owned Athletic detailed how a train ticket from New York’s Penn Station to MetLife Stadium in New Jersey would top US$100 for games – 10 times the standard fare. Fifa expressed “surprise” that senior Democrats have been telling the governing body to pick up the bill.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino shows the Jules Rimet trophy to Donald Trump in the Oval Office. Photo / Getty Images

Peter Moore, the former Liverpool chief executive who was a vice-president with Reebok at USA 94, warns it could get even more hostile for Fifa as the tournament kicks off. Moore, who founded Santa Barbara Sky FC in 2022, apportions blame with Infantino for failing to challenge the Americans when pricing agreements were made.

“Fifa, and in particular Infantino, decided many years ago to take advantage of a maybe unique situation here as to how tickets are sold and what prices they’re sold at, and the legality of the secondary market,” Moore tells Telegraph Sport.

He says Fifa should be taking more responsibility for anger, given it is profiting from an official secondary-market website.

“Not only are they turning a blind eye to it – they’re actually participating in what I believe is gouging. It’s the opportunistic element of this unique market.

“I live here, so I’m used to it, I played the game as well … but from the perspective of applying this to a World Cup with global, you know, fans coming over who are not used to this and certainly don’t have the financial wherewithal to be paying thousands of dollars a ticket.”

Prices are so high that Moore fears lower-than-hoped foreign tourist numbers for businesses and hotels. Many group-stage matches have tickets still available. Moore said cities “are already starting to realise this is not going to materialise the way that Fifa had promised them in their socioeconomic impact report”.

Infantino has defended price structures in recent weeks.

“What many people don’t know, because, of course, we generate billions in a World ⁠Cup, people don’t know Fifa is a non-profit organisation, which means all the revenue we generate, we invest in the organisation of the game, in 211 countries all over the world,” he said.

“Three-quarters of [those countries] ‌probably would not be able to have organised football without the grants we could give them. So we always try to find the right balance.”

England fans boycott World Cup for the wealthy

Infantino has previously insisted the tournament will be a sell-out. But Fifa is understood to still have up to a million tickets to sell to reach the tournament’s six million capacity. “Obscene” prices, dwarfing any previous sporting occasion, are also available on the resale website for many games. One senior figure in European football half-jokes that crowd scenes will “look like Davos”.

Sources close to the ticketing process say England’s official allocation hasn’t fully sold out. The Football Association was oversubscribed with initial interest but most registered appetite for the cheaper end. England fan membership has rocketed in recent years to around 30,000 thanks to improved performances in recent tournaments. But Telegraph Sport understands between 3000 and 4000 Three Lions supporters are expected to fly out for each match as part of the official allocation.

There are likely to be England shirts dotted around in other seats because of the team’s popularity in America, but many regulars have said they were put off by the prices. The cheapest set of tickets available for an England fan hoping to watch the national team go all the way to the final totalled US$7020. For those wanting Category 1 tickets, the price totalled US$16,590. Travel, hotels and daily food and beer costs could easily take spending well beyond US$60,000 for an entire tour.

Opinion is split on whether empty seats will be a theme at this tournament. With such volatile prices, it has become a trend in America for spectators to wait until the day of events to buy up seats as values fall.

But most predict the crowds will be a more affluent demographic than at previous tournaments. Even in Qatar, the Argentinians, the Brazilians, the Moroccans and the Cameroonians came in their droves. TV cutaways of the liveliest fans in their element at matches will be much harder for broadcasters to find this time if this event proves a preserve of the wealthy.

Last week, Fifa’s resale site had a listing of four tickets for the final at almost US$2.3m each. Even allowing for the December release of a US$60 ticket to ease fan outrage, analysis by SeatPick – a live events ticket aggregator – claims an average ticket price of US$1603, with starting prices averaging US$677.

Moore is depressed about the inevitable impact prices will have on the feel of this tournament. He says: “Who is this World Cup for? Is it for fans from around the world, or is it, unfortunately, for what I’m used to here, people who have got the money and want to be seen?”

US-based Moore, now 72, says he is “very concerned and saddened” by the contrast with the “great” USA ’94, with which he was heavily involved.

“It was very much, ‘make the tickets affordable – let’s bring people in’. Part of the bid process was, ‘We will build a professional league here in America’, which they did with the MLS. We built on that over the decades. I’m personally frustrated and I’m annoyed that Infantino’s KPI, if you will, is the $11b income rather than people just having a great time.”

His sentiments are shared by Thomas Concannon, of the Football Supporters Association’s (FSA) England Fans’ Embassy team.

“The cost of going to this World Cup is probably higher than anyone expected,” he told Telegraph Sport. “I don’t think people’s expectations going into the World Cup were unrealistic, either. They’d have expected that the cost of this was going to be more expensive than previous tournaments, but the whole packages have gone above and beyond what anyone could have realistically imagined. That’s the disappointing outcome from all of this.

“I still think that when the football starts, they’ll have a fantastic time, as they normally do with tournaments, and the conversations will be on the football. But still it feels a shame from our side, certainly from an England perspective, that we’re not taking more out than we are.”

Secret budget cuts behind the scenes

Infantino told delegates at Fifa Congress in Vancouver this week that the body is in its “most solid financial position ever”. A 15% increase in prizemoney was announced for participating teams after some of the smaller nations complained of spiralling bills for teams this summer.

Yet sources involved in tournament preparations have told Telegraph Sport that Fifa has been trimming other budgets in recent months. Some service-level agreements with various contractors at venues have been cut by up to a third over the past year.

That is not necessarily a bad thing for fans. One relatively subtle difference could result in a reduction of up to 50% on World Cup-branded advertising away from the stadiums compared with Qatar.

Another audit has led to budgets being trimmed for stadium staff, media areas and their bus shuttles, it is understood.

“The journalists might have to make do with instant coffee rather than espresso machines,” one insider remarked. “I’m sure the public will be getting their small violins out for that particular cut.”

Fifa was contacted for comment. A source close to the governing body said he did not immediately recognise the cost-cutting claims.

Powerbrokers pulling in different directions

The logistics of running of this tournament are unique and infinitely more complicated than they had been for Fifa in Russia and Qatar.

Contractors have told Telegraph Sport how they have never known Fifa so hands-on at the tournament, with a bigger team than ever on the ground in Miami.

Nevertheless, Infantino and his governing body have been powerless to intervene in various federal-state fallouts that have brought major strains on spending.

The diplomatic impact of the return of Donald Trump to the White House has further complicated Fifa efforts to smooth over any tensions between host cities and national organising bodies.

Moore, the former Liverpool chief executive, says one major factor is the lack of a figurehead leader for the tournament to challenge Infantino and Trump. In 2020, US Soccer president Cordeiro had quit for “offensive” language used in court papers submitted in an equal-pay case. He now serves as an adviser to Infantino, with Cindy Parlow Cone taking his former role.

Meanwhile, host cities complain of logistical headaches. As well as New York transportation rows, there has been similar anger regarding costs ⁠in Massachusetts. Train tickets from Boston to Foxborough, Massachusetts, for World Cup games will ⁠cost US$80, and bus rides will be priced at up to US$95. Fifa has responded with “mobility plans” to support host cities and is understood to be frustrated. ⁠Host City Agreements signed in 2018 required free transportation for fans to matches.

What happens next

Fans are already taking matters into their own hands to keep spiralling costs under control. There are several England WhatsApp groups in which coaches have already been booked to tackle the long trips to out-of-town stadiums.

The White House taskforce for the tournament, meanwhile, is hopeful the potential reopening of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on June 1, which is in charge of preventing terrorist and criminal activity, will help ease tensions for host cities. The latest attempted assassination of Donald Trump has worried organisers.

“As we prepare for the unprecedented scale of the Fifa World Cup, with millions of visitors and dozens of major events across the country, reopening DHS is essential,” Andrew Giuliani, executive director for the White House taskforce, said last week. “We cannot afford complacency – the stakes are simply too high.”

Lise Klaveness, president of the Norwegian Football Federation, has been seeking reassurances that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) force – which is under DHS control – will not target World Cup matches.

However, multiple sources in the US have told Telegraph Sport that ICE has no operational plans in place for the tournament, and is likely to give fans a wide berth.

Nevertheless, many fans are still vowing to stay away because of cost.

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