Donald Trump has questioned the value of four-figure World Cup tickets for matches involving the United States, telling the New York Post: “I honestly wouldn’t pay it either.”
The comment came in a telephone interview with the Post, with Trump claiming he “didn’t know that song” before the USMNT’s opening match against Paraguay.
In December, FIFA set a base price for Category 3 tickets – the cheapest available to most fans, given the small number of Category 4 seats at the tournament – of $1,120, according to the From the Guardian reporting at the time.
Trump said he was not aware of the prices football fans have to pay to attend a group match at the World Cup.
“I didn’t know that number,” Trump told The New York Post. “I would certainly like to be there, but to be honest, I wouldn’t pay for it either.”
Earlier this week, FIFA president Gianni Infantino defended the cost of World Cup seats, saying they were in line with prices for major US sporting events.
“We have 25% of group stage tickets, which can be purchased for less than $300,” Infantino said. “You can’t go and watch a college match in the US, not to mention a top professional match of a certain level, for less than $300. And this is the World Cup.”
As reported, the average cost of a ticket for the July 19 World Cup final in East Rutherford, New Jersey, is $13,000, and for the 2022 final in Qatar it was $1,600.
Trump fears the awards will exclude working-class Americans from being able to attend a game.
“If people from Queens and Brooklyn and all the people who love Donald Trump can’t go, I would be disappointed, but at the same time it’s a tremendous success,” he said of the World Cup he helped land for the US during his first term as president.
“I would like the people who voted for me to be able to go too.”
