FIFA World Cup 2026 tickets will be decided by a lottery

Luck will be required to get your hands on FIFA World Cup tickets in 2026.

Tickets to the men’s World Cup will be decided by a lottery, Vancouver-born FIFA vice-president Victor Montagliani confirmed on Wednesday.

“It’ll be a lottery system for the public, like every other World Cup really,” Montagliani said in a CHEK television interview with Don Taylor and Rick Dhaliwal. “The demand will obviously be quite high. The good thing is we’ll have more inventory for this World Cup [than previous tournaments]… It will be a lottery system. It’s really the only way we can do it.”

FIFA has yet to provide official details about ticketing, both in terms of pricing and when tickets will go on sale. Until then, you can sign up to a mailing list on FIFA.com for more information in the future.

The 2026 tournament, which is being held in Canada, the United States, and Mexico, will be the largest World Cup yet. A total of 48 countries (up from 32) will compete, with 104 matches (up from 64) taking place in 16 host cities.

Canada will host 13 matches, with seven set for BC Place in Vancouver and six at BMO Field in Toronto.

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Montagliani said FIFA received over 14 million requests for the 3.5 million tickets that were made available to the public in Qatar for the 2022 World Cup.

“We know that the requests for this North American World Cup will smash that 14 million,” he said.

Tickets for group stage matches in Qatar were sold for $15 to $296. Don’t expect them to be that cheap in 2026, though.