U.S. President Donald Trump is presented a novelty ticket by FIFA President Gianni Infantino during an announcement about the 2026 World Cup with Vice President JD Vance and Special Envoy Richard Grenell in the Oval Office at the White House on August 22.
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While hospitaly packages for the 2026 FIFA World Cup have been on sale in some form since May, the ticket process for the general public will begin on Wednesday, Sept. 10.
Tickets are expected to start as low as $60 for some group stage matches and as high as $6,730 for the final. From there prices could shift based on supply and demand as FIFA incorporates a dynamic pricing scheme for the first time at a World Cup.
There will be three total stages between then and the start of the tournament.
Here are the steps you’ll need to take, and what to expect as the process progresses.
Create a FIFA ID
Before you can sign up for any part of the ticketing process, you’ll need to set up a FIFA Ticket ID account.
It’s a pretty simple process. You’ll be asked to provide your email address and your physical nation and state of residence, as well as your preferred language for communications. You won’t need to provide an address or any sort of government identification or payment information.
Signing up means you should receive further instruction from FIFA via email about each phase of the ticket process when that information is made available.
Phase 1: Presale for Visa cardholders
Once you’ve created a FIFA ID, the first ticket event you’ll receive information about is registration for a presale lottery for anyone who possesses a Visa credit or debit card.
Registration for thar lottery will run from Sept. 10 to 19. Whether you register early or late during that time will not impact your chances of winning the lottery to be selected for the presale.
Through a randomized process, winners will be notified of their ability to purchase tickets starting on Sept. 29 and provided with a time window to log on and potentially purchase tickets for all 104 matches, or a team-specific ticket package (for teams that have already qualified).
However, just because you are selected for the presale does not mean all tickets and packages will be available. The closer to the morning of Oct. 1 your purchasing window is, the more tickets are likely to be available.
It’s not clear how much of the total World Cup ticket inventory will be available in this first phase or held for later registrations.
Phase 2: Early Ticket Draw
For those who either don’t apply or aren’t selected to purchase tickets in the presale, the process will begin all over again with an early ticket draw. Registering for that draw will still require the creation of a FIFA ID, though you will be able to pay with other methods aside from a Visa credit or debit card.
This time, registration for the draw will be held on Oct. 27-31, and for winners, their timeslots for purchase will run between mid November and early December. Again, the timeslot a winner receives could factor into how many tickets are still available when they log on to the purchasing platform.
Phase 3: Random Selection Draw
The process here is also similar to the first two phases. The difference is that it will come after the entire 48-team field and match schedule is set. So buyers will know the teams playing for group stage matches, and potential matchups (based on group stage performance) for knockout phase matches.
Exact dates for registration for this period are not yet clear. But it won’t start until at least after the 2026 FIFA World Cup draw, which will be held on Dec. 5 in Washington.
After this process, any remaining tickets will be available for general sale. Additionally, FIFA has plans to set up a ticket resale platform, although the details are still limited at the moment.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ianquillen/2025/09/09/want-to-buy-2026-fifa-world-cup-tickets-the-process-starts-sept-10/
