MIAMI (AP) — Ticket prices for next year’s World Cup will range initially from $60 for group-stage matches to $6,730 for the final, but could change as soccer’s top event adopts dynamic pricing for the first time.
The prices are up from a range of $25 to $475 for the 1994 tournament in the United States and for the U.S. dollar equivalent $69 to $1,607 when ticket details were announced for the 2022 tournament in Qatar.
“I think the message is ‘Get your tickets early,’ especially if you know where you will be, because you live in that city, or you’re a fan of the three hosting nations, and then you know already when and where they will play,” said Heimo Schirgi, the World Cup’s chief operating officer. “So that’s the message: ‘Get your tickets early,’ because anything could happen.”
Next year’s tournament runs from June 11 to July 19 and will be played at 11 sites in the U.S., three in Mexico and two in Canada. The tournament expanded from 32 nations to 48 and from 64 games to 104.
The initial draw period will be limited to Visa card holders and will run from 11 a.m. EDT on Sept. 10 through 11 a.m. EDT on Sept. 19. Those picked to buy tickets will be notified starting Sept. 29 and will be given a timeslot to purchase starting Oct. 1. While tickets for all 104 matches are being put on sale, receiving a timeslot does not guarantee tickets will be available.
Sales will be capped at four tickets per person per match, with no person being able to purchase more than 40 for the totality of the tournament.
FIFA said it has no additional details on prices to announce.
A second phase, called an early ticket draw, likely will run from Oct. 27-31, with purchase timeslots from mid-November to early December.
A third phase, termed a random selection draw, will start after the final draw of teams on Dec. 5 determines the World Cup schedule. FIFA said tickets will be available closer to the tournament “on a first-come, first-served basis.”
FIFA also said it will start an official resale platform.
Hospitality packages have been sold since May. For the eight matches at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, including the final on July 19, prices range from $3,500 to $73,200 per person.
Fans can purchase tickets to follow a certain team, or purchase for a certain site. Dynamic pricing was also utilized for this year’s Club World Cup, when tickets were cut from $473.90 to $13.40 for the Chelsea-Fluminense semifinal at MetLife Stadium.
“It’s key to highlight FIFA’s mission and FIFA’s objective of providing funding, providing opportunities, providing growth to our sport across all the 211 member associations,” Schirgi said. “And as part of that mission, which we take very seriously, we’re looking at optimizing the revenue, but also optimizing attendance in the stadium, right? So, it’s always a balance between different factors.”
American Airlines announced Wednesday its AAdvantage loyalty program members can redeem miles for World Cup tickets, starting with executive platinum and concierge key members on Oct. 13, with platinum pro, platinum and gold starting the following day and all members having access on Oct. 15.
Thirteen teams in the field have been determined. The U.S., Canada and Mexico all are assured World Cup spots as the host nations, while reigning champion Argentina with Lionel Messi and perennial power Brazil are among the teams that have already secured qualification.
The host nations will play all three of their group stage matches on home soil. The U.S. will open June 12 in Inglewood, California, then play June 19 in Seattle and again June 25 back in Inglewood. Canada will play June 12 in Toronto, then June 18 and June 24 in Vancouver. Mexico will play June 11 and June 24 in Mexico City, with a June 18 match in Guadalajara.
AP Sports Writer Ronald Blum contributed to this report.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
A security official stands nearby as the FIFA World Cup winner's trophy is displayed in a transparent box under a tent, during an event for fans to view it at the Italian Cultural Center in Vancouver, British Columbia, Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via AP)
People wait to view the FIFA World Cup winner's trophy at the Italian Cultural Center in Vancouver, British Columbia, Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via AP)
Argentina's Lionel Messi smiles during a training session ahead of a World Cup 2026 qualifying soccer match against Venezuela, at the Argentina Soccer Association in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
CAIRO (AP) — Iranians began to regain internet access on Wednesday after authorities ended a monthslong shutdown. But users said service was slow and spotty in some areas, with apps like YouTube and Instagram heavily restricted, as they were before the cutoff began during nationwide protests in January.
Authorities justified the outage as a military imperative after the United States and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28. Their decision to lift some restrictions this week came as negotiators appeared to be closing in on a more permanent truce. But many Iranians feared access could be cut off again at a moment's notice.
Internet tracking company Netblocks said Iran’s connectivity, which measures the ability of devices to connect to the internet, is at around 86% of capacity from before the cutoff. Internet analysis firm Kentik said internet traffic, which measures the amount of data transferred and is a good illustration of usage, was at around 40%.
Amir Rashidi, an Iranian cybersecurity analyst, said there were still widespread disruptions. “It's too early to say the shutdown is over,” he wrote on X.
Iran’s roughly 90 million people have been cut off from the internet for most of 2026, one of the world’s longest and strictest national shutdowns. Young people with online careers saw their incomes evaporate. Job losses and the closure of online businesses added to the war's steep economic costs.
The cutoff made it difficult for Iranian families to communicate through months of unrest and war. At some points, phone lines were also cut off, though they were later restored.
A woman living in Tehran said that for months she was barely able to speak to her sons living abroad. She couldn't believe authorities had restored access, saying she had assumed they would find some justification to prolong the outage.
A taxi driver said service was restored but weak. He expressed hope it would improve so he could use messaging apps with family and friends. Both spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
Prices spiked during the shutdown, with residents in Tehran at times paying around $7.50 per gigabyte. Prices are back down to around $2.25 for 30 gigabytes, roughly where they were before the protests.
Even then, Iran tightly controlled access to popular social media sites, leading many to rely on virtual private networks, or VPNs. The cost of those workarounds soared during the shutdown, making them unaffordable for many as the economy was battered.
Businesses have started reappearing online, announcing their return with posts on sites like Instagram and Telegram.
A gamer and tech influencer in the central city of Isfahan said the shutdown had caused him to lose a lot of his audience on YouTube and Instagram, where he had spent years building up a large following.
“All my views and interactions are way down. I’ve been erased from the algorithm,” he said in a voice note sent by WhatsApp, adding that his internet connection was still slower than before the shutdown.
“The situation is such that many content producers have had their income reduced to zero, have moved on to other jobs, or have been forced to sell their equipment to survive,” he said. He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.
Iranian authorities first shut down the internet in January during mass anti-government protests that were eventually stamped out in a violent crackdown. Thousands of people were killed and tens of thousands detained.
That cutoff was just starting to ease when the government imposed a complete internet blackout after the start of the war, when U.S. and Israeli strikes killed Iran's supreme leader and other top officials.
The government faced criticism for the prolonged shutdown, which caused even more harm to an economy devastated by inflation, strikes on key industries and a U.S. blockade on Iranian ports.
The internet cutoff cost an estimated $30-40 million daily, with indirect losses likely twice that much, a member of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce, Afshin Kolahi, told a local newspaper last month. About 10 million people have jobs that depend on internet connectivity, according to Communications Minister Sattar Hashemi.
Iranians still had access to a national net, but that has a far narrower reach, and users complained of poor service and heavy censorship. Senior government officials are given SIM cards granting them access to the global internet. Under pressure, the government expanded access to the SIM cards to some professions during the shutdown.
A woman checks her smartphone while sitting on a bench along a sidewalk in northern Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, May 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
