Tickets for the upcoming World Cup play-in tournament in Mexico have plummeted as the local military continues to battle drug cartels in the state of Jalisco.
Prices have fallen as low as $11.33 (200 pesos) in some cases, FIFA announced Tuesday.
Guadalajara, the Jalisco capital, and Monterrey will stage the inter-confederation playoff tournament from March 26-31. Iraq, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bolivia, New Caledonia, Jamaica and Suriname will play at the two stadiums, which are also venues for this summer’s World Cup across North America.
The violence that erupted near host city Guadalajara after the death of Mexico’s most-wanted cartel leader caused concern but Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum said there was no danger to fans coming to the country.
As the countdown to the 2026 World Cup reached 100 days to go, officials in Jalisco said the host state was prepared and secure, following unrest that briefly disrupted sporting events in the Guadalajara area.
Head of the Guadalajara Organizing Committee, Juan Jose Frangie, said state authorities had stepped up security and remained confident in preparations following violence that erupted after the death of cartel leader Nemesio Oseguera, known as ‘El Mencho.’
Tickets for the upcoming World Cup play-in tournament in Mexico have plummeted as the local government continues to battle drug cartels in the state of Jalisco (pictured)
Estadio Guadalajara will host four matches during the World Cup and some preliminary games
Frangie is also the mayor of Zapopan, home to Estadio Akron – one of Mexico’s venues for the World Cup.
The unrest briefly disrupted sporting events and drew attention to safety in one of the host city regions, but local officials say they are working closely with federal partners ahead of the World Cup.
‘We never thought that in 72 hours the metropolitan area would enter a state of calm,’ Frangie told Mexican newspaper Milenio.
‘There is still a long way to go and there are lingering fears, but by continuing with our activities, we have allowed people to become increasingly confident.
‘We are telling people who are coming to the World Cup that it is a safe state, without problems… The National Guard and Ministry of Defense have sent 2,500 more personnel.’
Meanwhile, soccer fans have also pushed back against high ticket prices for tournament games this summer.
FIFA has about 7 million seats to fill for the World Cup matches and said last month it received 500 million ticket requests. FIFA president Gianni Infantino has proclaimed all 104 games are sold out and yet some fans received emails last week offering an extra 48-hour window for ticket sales.
A bus blazes in Jalisco following the killing of cartel boss Nemesio ‘El Mencho’ Oseguera
FIFA’s prices in December ranged up to $8,680 per ticket. After criticism, FIFA said it will offer a few hundred $60 tickets for every game to the 48 national federations in the tournament. Those federations will decide how to distribute them to their most loyal fans who attended previous games.
Most seats on FIFA’s ticket resale platform — seeking to cut out the secondary market and earn FIFA extra 15-percent fees from buyers and sellers — are well past the $1,000 mark.
Further complicating things for FIFA is the town of Foxborough, Massachusetts, which is demanding to be paid up front before hosting games at Gillette Stadium, home of the NFL’s New England Patriots.
The Select Board of Foxborough has refused to issue a permit for World Cup matches at the stadium and set a March 17 deadline to be paid $7.8 million — what the town estimates will be the cost of police and other expenses. Foxborough said it was not part of FIFA’s hosting agreement with Boston.
Another potential casualty: Fan festivals.
They’ve been a key part of the World Cup experience in the past two decades and offer a chance for thousands of fans without match tickets to take part in the World Cup atmosphere.
However, some of those plans are now being scaled back in the US.
New York/New Jersey eliminated its Fan Fest in Jersey City, New Jersey, even though it had started selling tickets for an event scheduled to be open every day of the tournament.
Planning to sell tickets was itself unprecedented for World Cup fan zones, which were free to enter since being launched at the 2006 edition in Germany.
Seattle cut down its original plan and rescheduled it for smaller venues and Boston trimmed its event to 16 days.
The chief operating officer of Miami’s FIFA World Cup host committee said during a congressional hearing on February 24 that it might cancel its event if it did not receive federal funding within 30 days. Kansas City, Missouri, Police Deputy Chief Joseph Maybin said the city had an immediate need for federal funds to prepare security.
House Republicans said federal money may be held up by the partial government shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, caused by Democrats insisting restrictions be placed on Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
FIFA has faced criticism for giving Donald Trump a peace prize, only for him to bomb Iran
And then there is the situation with Iran’s national team following the joint US-Israeli strikes on that country.
Iran is set to play two group stage games in Inglewood, California, and one in Seattle.
However, whether the Iranian team will come to the US is uncertain.
‘What is certain is that after this attack, we cannot be expected to look forward to the World Cup with hope,’ Iran’s top soccer official, Mehdi Taj, said last weekend as the US and Israel launched coordinated attacks that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and dozens more senior officials.
Still, Iran has not announced it is withdrawing from the tournament, which no team that qualified has done in the past 75 years. Iran, the second-highest ranked team in Asia, was drawn in a group with Belgium, Egypt and New Zealand.
FIFA did not immediately respond to a request on whether Iran federation officials attended the Atlanta workshop.
On Tuesday, soccer fans blasted FIFA’s latest effort to promote the upcoming North American World Cup amid the ongoing war in the Middle East and Mexico’s own armed conflicts with local drug cartels.
‘Kicking off the @FIFAWorldCup 100 days from now…’ read a post from the international soccer organization alongside a graphic for the Mexico-South Africa game scheduled for June 15 in Mexico City.
Soccer fans are blasting FIFA’s latest effort to promote the upcoming North American World Cup amid the ongoing war in the Middle East and Mexico’s own battle with cartels
Smoke billows following a US-Israeli air strike near the Azadi(freedom) tower in Tehran
Nervous fans were not interested in seeing any such promotion.
‘Read the room,’ fashion designer and soccer fan Tomi Rikhotso wrote on X.
Another agreed, writing: ‘I believe this World Cup would be chaotic and overshadowed by geopolitics.’
Many others were still upset with FIFA for giving President Donald Trump a peace prize only for the United States to bomb Iran.
‘What’s even worse is they know and don’t care,’ one critic added. ‘Didn’t they give Trump a symbolic peace prize and were impatient to get their hands on patches of land on the Gaza strip to build stadiums?’
That last point refers to FIFA’s joint effort with Trump’s controversial Board of Peace to build a 25,000-seat national soccer stadium in war-ravaged Gaza.
