Cheapest group-stage resale prices have fallen roughly 37% against where they sat 60 days out, with the San Francisco Bay Area down 59% and Canada vs Bosnia-Herzegovina down 36% from face value1. Group-stage tickets on StubHub start from $162. Value held only for knockouts and any Argentina or Brazil match, where resale supply stayed thin.
Infantino cited 500 million ticket requests to justify the record dynamic pricing. The slide is concentrated in exactly the group-stage tier that figure was meant to support, which means the demand FIFA banked on has not converted to sales before a ball is kicked. Empty seats in low-demand fixtures would show on a broadcast reaching 6 billion viewers.
StubHub and SeatGeek have denied collusion allegations raised on social media; the claim is unproven and the platforms reject it. The legal exposure runs through the price data, not that denial. New York Attorney General Letitia James and New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport subpoenaed FIFA on 27 May over MetLife ticketing, after average prices rose 34% across 90 of 104 matches2. The European Commission confirmed receipt of a separate Article 102 competition complaint on 28 May. FIFA has answered neither in public.
