FIFA claims to have '508 million' requests for 7 million available tickets. So why are plenty of tickets still available?

There are 48 flags being represented at the World Cup next month, but when it comes to FIFA’s ticket sales, the most prominent flag is red. FIFA touted another ticket sale release Thursday afternoon — its third ticket drop in the “last-minute” sales phase since April 1 — with tickets available on a first-come, first-serve basis while supplies last. After spending more than three-and-a-half hours in the FIFA queue, I quickly realized that the supplies were plentiful.

And they were lasting way longer than FIFA would like to admit, even for the world’s best and most popular teams. “Every match is already sold out,” FIFA President Gianni Infantino said at a business conference back in February. “We keep some tickets back for some last minute sales, of course, but every match is sold out.

” FIFA walked back that claim, telling The Athletic that Infantino misspoke and that FIFA expects to sell out every game. Just over a month from the opening matches kicking off in the United States, Mexico and Canada, the question has to be raised about whether FIFA has oversold ticket interest this whole time. On April 29, all but seven of the 72 total group stage matches in the tournament were listed on the FIFA ticketing website as having “limited availability.

” Eight days later, 57 matches were listed as normal availability; only 15 were “limited availability. ” Want to see Lionel Messi and defending World Cup champion Argentina? Nearly every section of Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium has tickets available for its opener on June 16 against Algeria, with a get-in price of $770.