Soccer’s Exorbitant Costs

Soccer belongs to the people. But in the United States, it is hoarded by the wealthy. Like housing, healthcare, and groceries, American youth-soccer has become prohibitively expensive. It can run families as much as $10,000 to fund one child’s participation in soccer for one year.[1] In a country where the median household income hovers around $80,000[2] and nearly 36 million people live in poverty,[3] soccer is out of reach for many (if not most) American children. Unsurprisingly, then, the United States has seen a precipitous decline in participation: 14% fewer children between ages 6 and 12 played soccer in 2018 compared to three years prior.[4] The U.S. is an anomaly in this regard. Soccer is an unthinking part of daily life in the rest of the world. Children learn to play (for free) in streets, parks, and community clubs.[5] And even youth soccer’s most competitive levels are funded by clubs, national federations, and other public entities because those nations, unlike the U.S., view youth sporting engagement as a valuable social output and invest in it accordingly.[6]

Providing public goods that promote socialization and reinforce community—without extracting every ounce of profit—is a foreign practice to the American ruling class. Pricing out low- and middle-income earners while catering to the rich, on the other hand, is a favorite American pastime that will continue into the 2026 World Cup. Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), soccer’s global governing body, recently released ticket prices for the upcoming tournament.[7] Tickets will cost 174% more on average than the U.S. Soccer Federation’s own projections submitted during the bidding process, and will far exceed prices of previous World Cups.[8] Certain tickets to this year’s final will cost six times more than the record high for any prior World Cup final.[9] What’s more, the United States—unlike most other countries—does not regulate the secondary (i.e., resale) ticket market.[10] Left unregulated, scalpers are free to charge even more exorbitant prices on top of FIFA’s already-inflated baseline price.[11]

And the price gouging does not stop there. Since FIFA’s World Cup schedule announcement, hotel prices in host cities have surged by over 300% on average and in some cases by over 400%.[12] These surges far outpace rises during comparable large-scale events in other countries. For instance, hotel prices in Paris during the 2024 Olympics increased by a comparatively modest (though still excessive) 140% percent.[13] To state the obvious, this summer’s World Cup is accessible only to the affluent.

 

FIFA and President Trump: Excluding the Masses

The functional exclusion of low- and middle-income fans from the World Cup reflects FIFA’s self-interested posture and dovetails with its warm embrace of authoritarian regimes over recent decades.[14] FIFA president Gianni Infantino lauded the “beginning of [a] fruitful cooperation and interaction” with Vladimir Putin following Russia’s hosting of the 2018 World Cup.[15] Infantino has remained tepid about Putin’s assault on Ukraine and undeterred by revelations surrounding Russia’s state-sponsored doping scheme.[16] FIFA hosted the Beach Soccer World Cup in Russia in 2021, despite global anti-doping authorities mandating that no international events be held there.[17] FIFA plows forward with anything that helps its bottom line.

Infantino has become a familiar face in Trump circles too. A guest at President Trump’s second inauguration, Infantino recently concocted a FIFA “peace” prize that he awarded to President Trump at the World Cup draw in Washington, D.C.[18] (That Zaw Zaw—close ally of Myanmar’s violent, oppressive military junta and President of Myanmar’s Football Federation—will oversee the award’s selection process going forward[19] makes the “peace” moniker even more farcical.) And like FIFA, President Trump’s disdain for ordinary Americans was on display at the World Cup draw. Far from expressing any concern about the event’s economic accessibility, President Trump applauded FIFA for “setting new records in ticket sales” for the upcoming tournament.[20]

At bottom, FIFA’s alliance with President Trump is amplifying the forces squeezing ordinary people out of world’s largest sport and American society generally. President Trump and FIFA as bedfellows makes sense. After all, favoring the moneyed over the disadvantaged is the Trump agenda. President Trump’s signature legislative accomplishment in his first term was a tax bill that disproportionately benefitted the richest Americans, while doing next to nothing for the poorest.[21] And the second Trump Administration, for its part, has been busy dismantling the administrative state, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)[22]—the agency designed to ensure the economy gives American consumers a fair shake. The Trump Administration shuttered CFPB headquarters and ordered its staff to halt any work in February 2025.[23] The agency now stands functionally dormant.

 

Looking forward

It goes without saying, then, the Trump Administration will not be pursuing a regulatory agenda to reign in FIFA’s gluttony. So as the World Cup descends on American soil, FIFA and all the corporate entities who stand to profit—hotels and airlines, amongst others—are running wild. Greed is the goal.

Some local political figures, including New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, are pushing back against FIFA’s prohibitively high ticket prices. [24] Mamdani plans to appoint a city official to spearhead the World Cup-pricing issue in the New York market.[25] But without more sweeping regulatory protections or federal legislation, the World Cup gates will lock out the vast majority of Americans.

Many of us will still enjoy the spectacle of the World Cup from television screens. We will gather together in local bars, apartments, and community spaces. No amount of corporate predation can change the simple truth that the World Cup still belongs to those of us who experience it together, wherever that may be.

 

 

[1] Ryan Baldi, ‘You can’t have barriers’: is pay-to-play having a corrosive effect on US soccer? The Guardian (July, 23, 2024, 5:00 AM), https://www.theguardian.com/football/article/2024/jul/23/you-cant-have-barriers-is-pay-to-play-having-a-corrosive-affect-on-us-soccer [https://perma.cc/9AQP-QL7Z].

[2] Melissa Kollas & Zach Scherer, Income in the United States: 2024, U.S. Census Bureau (Sep. 9, 2025), https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2025/demo/p60-286.html [https://perma.cc/6972-XXPL].

[3] Emily A. Shrider & Christina Bijou, Poverty in the United States: 2024, U.S. Census Bureau (Sep. 9, 2025), https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2025/demo/p60-287.html [https://perma.cc/WKB2-KE94].

[4] Joe Drape, Youth Soccer Participation Has Fallen Significantly in America, N.Y. Times (July 14, 2018), https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/14/sports/world-cup/soccer-youth-decline.html [https://perma.cc/KP92-QG26].

[5] Baldi, supra note 1.

[6] Adrian Miroslav Merka & Viorel Cojocaru, The financing of sports in some European Union countries, 21 Geosport For Society 88, 89–91 (2024).

[7] Adam Crafton, How FIFA’s World Cup pricing dwarfs projections in original North American bid, N.Y. Times: The Athletic (Dec. 12, 2025), https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6884967/2025/12/12/world-cup-tickets-fifa-pricing/ [https://perma.cc/AA42-YPF8].

[8] Id.

[9] Henry Bushnell, How soaring World Cup ticket prices compare to Super Bowl, other major sporting events, N.Y. Times: The Athletic (Dec. 11, 2025),  https://perma.cc/DS4L-LH6A.

[10] Henry Bushnell, FIFA not entirely to blame for World Cup ticket prices. But it made one big mistake, N.Y. Times: The Athletic (Dec. 17, 2025), https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6683842/2025/12/11/world-cup-ticket-prices-usmnt-super-bowl/ [https://perma.cc/REE5-CRMY].

[11] Id.

[12] Adam Crafton & Henry Bushnell, Hotel prices in World Cup host cities surge by more than 300% after schedule confirmed, N.Y. Times: The Athletic (Dec. 10, 2025),  https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6875796/2025/12/10/hotel-prices-in-world-cup-host-cities-surge-by-more-than-300-after-schedule-confirmed/ [https://perma.cc/SP3D-JZZB].

[13] Id.

[14] Marina Hyde, Welcome to the 2026 World Cup shakedown! The price of a ticket: the integrity of the game, The Guardian (Dec. 12, 2025, 9:00 AM), https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/dec/12/2026-world-cup-fifa-trump-gianni-infantino-donald-trump [https://perma.cc/3GKG-9B2V].

[15] Rob Harris, Column: Infantino admiration of Putin leaves FIFA exposed, AP News (Mar. 1 2022, 4:12 PM), https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-vladimir-putin-soccer-sports-international-soccer-26d319a73173f89b7bc06a94d9beb7f1 [https://perma.cc/P6DF-V2SY].

[16] Id.

[17] Id.

[18] Bryan Armen Graham & Peter Beaumont, Trump awarded inaugural Fifa peace prize at World Cup draw in Washington, The Guardian (Dec. 5, 2025, 12:53 PM), https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/dec/05/fifa-peace-prize-trump-world-cup-infantino [https://perma.cc/U96G-RGQQ].

[19] Daniel Boffey, Revealed: Myanmar junta ‘crony’ given key role behind Fifa peace prize, The Guardian (Dec. 4, 2025), https://perma.cc/2KS9-SAHD.

[20] Graham & Beaumont, supra note 12.

[21] Steve Wamhoff et al., Analysis of Tax Provisions in the Trump Megabill as Signed into Law: National and State Level Estimates, Inst. on Tax’n and Econ. Pol’y (July 22, 2025), https://itep.org/tax-provisions-in-trump-megabill-national-and-state-level-estimates/ [https://perma.cc/66FC-52XF].

[22] Joe Hernandez, The Trump administration has stopped work at the CFPB. Here’s what the agency does, NPR (Feb. 10, 2025, 4:35 PM), https://www.npr.org/2025/02/10/nx-s1-5292123/the-trump-administration-has-stopped-work-at-the-cfpb-heres-what-the-agency-does [https://perma.cc/3DKZ-KG6H].

[23] Id.

[24] Mark Prussin & Marcia Kramer, NYC Major-elect Zohran Mamdani vows to appoint “World Cup czar” over FIFA ticket prices, CBS News (Dec. 14, 2025, 3:17 PM), https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/zohran-mamdani-fifa-ticket-prices-world-cup-czar/ [https://perma.cc/XB76-SJ68].

[25] Id.