Some World Cup fans received an unexpected email Tuesday morning from FIFA advertising an “exclusive additional chance to purchase” tickets to the 2026 tournament. “Your exclusive ticket window,” the email read, “opens this week!”
There was a problem, though: The email didn’t say when the window would be. It read: “Your exclusive 48-hour access window(s) will start at:” — followed by a blank space.
It included a link to “Log in to purchase tickets,” but the link directed fans to a message informing them that “the Web Shop Portal closes on 22 February 2026” — two days ago — “and will reopen on 2 April 2026” — in more than a month.
And so, there was widespread confusion.
Fans flooded Reddit, TikTok and other social media platforms to ask what, exactly, this email was about, or what had gone wrong. They messaged WhatsApp groups with screenshots and questions.
For hours after the email landed in inboxes around 9 a.m. ET Tuesday, FIFA did not offer answers. Spokespeople did not have an explanation.
Then, around 2 p.m. ET, some fans began receiving emails that did include a time slot — tomorrow, Wednesday, Feb. 25, with the earliest slots beginning at 11 a.m. ET. And their natural next question was: What is this?
FIFA had previously said that their next and last chance to purchase tickets would come in April. It had boasted of more than 500 million ticket requests in the so-called Random Selection Draw, its third and final lottery. Just last week, as FIFA distributed tickets to lottery winners, its president Gianni Infantino claimed that “every match is sold out” — though he also mentioned that some tickets had been held back “for some last-minute sales.”
Now, suddenly, FIFA says it has tickets to sell — and will offer them to select fans on short notice, rather than in April. A spokesperson confirmed to The Athletic “that a limited number of additional single-match tickets … have become available following the conclusion of the Random Selection Draw.”
The emails went to fans who’d entered the Random Selection Draw but struck out. FIFA, in a statement, said the chosen fans were “a defined group of applicants” who’d been picked “in order to maximise fairness and acknowledge fans who have already demonstrated strong interest in the tournament.” The statement did not give specific criteria for selection.
The emails read: “Following your recent unsuccessful FIFA World Cup 2026 ticket application … and the availability of a limited number of additional tickets, you have been granted exclusive access to a dedicated ticket window with single-match tickets in Host City(ies) that you applied for.”
The amended emails then specified which city: Dallas, or Philadelphia, or Kansas City, or Guadalajara and so on. Fans also reported getting time slots for tickets to matches in Boston, Toronto, Los Angeles and San Francisco. It’s unclear all cities, or only some, will be part of this sales window. Fans who originally applied for tickets to games in Miami and New York New Jersey, for example, reported that they had not received Tuesday afternoon emails with time slots.
The emails with time slots gave Argentina fans, for example, hope that their team’s matches in Dallas and Kansas City weren’t sold out after all.
But FIFA did not say which matches would be available, nor which ticket categories and at what prices.
There is a chance that the out-of-nowhere sales windows are an attempt to sell tickets to less-attractive matches in cities where the overwhelming majority of demand was for games featuring giants. Philadelphia, for example, will host Brazil vs. Haiti but also Ivory Coast vs. Curaçao; it’s unclear if both will be on offer Wednesday.
The windows also could signal that much of the 500 million ticket requests were for Category 3 tickets, the cheapest ones; and that some Category 2 or Category 1 tickets — the more expensive ones — remain available.
FIFA, in an emailed statement to The Athletic, did not say why these sales windows had been created, nor why the initial emails had excluded time slots, nor how many tickets would be available in these sales windows. The emails to fans did note: “Availability is extremely limited and offered on a first-come, first-served basis.”
It’s unclear if there will be windows for tickets in all 16 host cities across the U.S., Canada and Mexico, or only in some.
It’s also unclear if every fan who received the Tuesday morning email with missing details will receive a second email with a time slot. Some said they had, but others said Tuesday afternoon that they hadn’t. (FIFA spokespeople did not immediately respond to questions seeking this information and other answers.)
The incomplete emails and the unexpected sales phase are the latest saga in a World Cup ticketing process that has been riddled with confusion. In conversations and messages with The Athletic over the last several months, fans have expressed exasperation and ripped FIFA for everything from prices to poor communication.
The tournament is scheduled to begin June 11.
