FIFA’s latest desperate ploy to sell the 2025 Club World Cup is a “first-of-its-kind offer” that, on the surface, sounds appealing.
Soccer’s global governing body on Thursday tempted fans to its novel, controversial club tournament, which will debut in the United States this summer, with “ticket packs” that include “guaranteed” access to the 2026 men’s World Cup — the grander international tournament that will also be held in the U.S. a year later.
But buried in the fine print, and in a 16-page “Terms of Sale” document, are several caveats that make the offers seem deceptive or downright outlandish.
Buyers of a standard “pack,” which features tickets to two or three Club World Cup matches, “will be granted a guaranteed option to buy one ticket to a FIFA World Cup 26 match in the United States (excluding the final),” FIFA said in a Thursday release.
What it didn’t say, except in clause 4.2 of the Terms of Sale, is that FIFA, “in its sole discretion,” can determine which 2026 World Cup match(es), and what type of ticket(s), the fan will have access to.
In other words, first, the fan must pay a three-figure sum for Club World Cup tickets. Next, they mustn’t resell those tickets, and must actually use them — meaning they or a family member or friend must go to the game. And only then, months later, will they be offered the chance to pay another likely-three-figure sum for a 2026 World Cup ticket that may or may not be in the upper deck, to a match that may or may not be in the same city and may or may not feature interesting teams.
That, however, sounds like a sensible deal compared to FIFA’s second offering, the “Super Ticket Pack.” This, FIFA said, is a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity”; the package “features one ticket per match to 20 FIFA Club World Cup 2025 matches,” and then “a guaranteed option to buy one ticket” to the 2026 World Cup final, the most prestigious event in all of sports.
The buyer of a “super ticket pack,” though, must “use all [20] tickets to attend all [20] matches,” and the matches must be on 20 different days — even though there are only 22 distinct Club World Cup matchdays.
In other words, a fan would have to plan an entire month of travel between some combination of Miami, New Jersey, Cincinnati, Orlando, ...
