So, you really want to go to a game during the 2026 World Cup in the US, Canada, and Mexico? You’re not alone my friend. Before you break the bank and start spending your hard earned dollars, though, we need to figure out together how FIFA is going to sell those extremely popular tickets.

We still know very little about how FIFA plans to sell tickets for the 2026 World Cup in sixteen cities across Mexico, Canada, and the US, except for having a website where you can register your interest in buying tickets.

While FIFA hasn’t announced, as of March 2025, the exact dates when 2026 tickets will go on sale — or the process behind it — it advised in September 2024 to be wary as tickets for the 2026 World Cup that started popping up on resale platforms like VividSeats and StubHub.

The international organization said in a statement: “Any fan wishing to purchase tickets for the FIFA World Cup 26™ to be wary of non-FIFA official ticketing websites that claim to be selling tickets already.” ESPN reported on FIFA’s resale warning first. According to reports quoting FIFA, there are no 2026 tickets in circulation simply because the organization hasn’t distributed any type of tickets to sponsors, advertisers, partners, host countries, clients, VIPs and others. And, as we know, if hasn’t made tickets available for the general public yet. We also know that FIFA will make life for resale platforms difficult because, in the past, it has centralized resell efforts on its own platform. So we advise not to buy tickets from these resellers.

Qatar 2022 as guideline

Meanwhile, we can use Qatar 2022’s ticket sales methods as a reference for how FIFA might sell tickets this time around.

First, we know that FIFA began the ticket sales process exactly 305 days before the start of the competition in Qatar. If this pattern holds, ticket sales for 2026 will begin approximately in August of 2025. Also, we know how much those tickets cost, and you can read the details of the ticket prices for Qatar 2022 in this article.

There were five ticket categories for the Qatar World Cup 2022:

• Category 1: The highest-priced tickets, located in prime areas within the stadium.
• Category 2 and Category 3: Seating areas within the stadium separated from the Category 1 area.
• Category 4: Reserved exclusively for Qatari residents.
• Obstructed View Tickets: Seats with a restricted view of the pitch, available at up to a 50% discount.

Additionally, there were four types of accessibility tickets.

For Qatar 2022, FIFA sold tickets via its official ticket portal and physically at two ticketing centers in Qatar. The ticket sales were divided into different phases, starting with a random selection draw sales period and ending with a “last-minute” sale phase from September 2022 to the end of the competition on December 18, 2022. To apply, individuals had to be at least 18 years old and create their own FIFA ticketing account.

Sales Phases:

Phase 1:

• Random Selection Draw Sales Period: January 19, 2022, to February 8, 2022.
• First Come First Served Sales Period: March 23, 2022, to March 29, 2022.

Phase 2:

• Random Selection Draw Sales Period: April 5, 2022, to April 28, 2022.
• First Come First Served Sales Period: July 5, 2022, to August 16, 2022.

Last-Minute Sales Phase:

• Online Sales: September 27, 2022, until the end of the competition on December 18, 2022.
• Over-the-Counter Sales: October 18, 2022, until the final match day on December 18, 2022.

During the two random selection draw sales periods, fans could apply for tickets at any time, but all applications were processed together regardless of submission time. If demand exceeded the available ticket inventory, a random selection draw determined which applicants were allocated tickets. All applicants were notified by email of the outcome.

Later, there were two other ticket sales phases: two “first come, first served” periods and a “last-minute” sales period. Preference was given based on the date and time of the submission, and purchases were processed as real-time transactions.

It’s important to note that a ticket application could be changed or canceled before purchase, but all sales were final. The maximum number of tickets people and households (based on address) could purchase was six per match and up to sixty across the competition.

Types of Tickets Available:

• Individual Match Tickets (IMTs): Tickets for a specific match, available for all matches of the competition in categories 1, 2, 3, and 4 (only for residents of Qatar) during the last-minute sales phase, both online and over-the-counter at the FIFA Ticketing Centres.
• Supporter Tickets (STs): These were available in categories 1, 2, and 3 for national team supporters applying for group-stage matches played by their national team between Match 1 and Match 48.
• Conditional Supporter Tickets (CSTs): For national team supporters applying for tickets available for the four second-round matches that could potentially be played by their national team in the Round of 16, the Quarter-Finals, the Semi-Finals, the 3rd Place Match, and the Final.
• Four-Stadium Ticket Series (FSTs): This series was for those who wanted to attend one match on selected matchdays while visiting four different stadiums. Given the expanded tournament area, FIFA is unlikely to offer these tickets for 2026.
• Team Specific Ticket Series (TSTs): A series of match tickets to support a specific national team of the customer’s choice, allowing the customer to watch three, four, or seven matches.

Irrespective of your nationality and the country in which you resided, you could apply for Team Specific Ticket Series, Supporter Tickets, and Conditional Supporter Tickets of any national team, provided you declared yourself a supporter of the relevant national team during the application process. Conditional Supporter Tickets were more expensive than second-round match tickets purchased as Individual Match Tickets due to a 10% service fee. The price of each Team Specific Ticket Series (TST) was the sum total of all tickets contained in the selected TST, plus a 10% TST service fee.

All ticket prices applied to adults and children, regardless of the child’s age, and were delivered as mobile tickets accessed via the free official mobile ticketing app.

The main ticket applicant couldn’t send any tickets allocated for their use to a different person and could only send the ticket(s) from an original guest(s) to another guest(s). FIFA allowed resales only through its ticketing website, which sounded like a very complicated process. Finally, ticket prices on the resale platform could be lower than or greater than the price paid for the ticket by the original purchaser, plus a resale fee.

If Qatar is any measure, it will require a PhD to buy tickets for the tournament in Mexico, Canada, and the US. Meanwhile, we’ll have to wait a bit more to learn the exact process for buying tickets for the 2026 World Cup.