FIFA cancels free World Cup tickets after glitch
About 60 people thought they had stumbled onto the deal of a lifetime. A glitch on FIFA’s ticketing website had processed their World Cup ticket orders at zero cost, leaving them with valid-looking allocations for group stage matches in Toronto. That luck ran out fast.
FIFA has since cancelled those tickets and sent the affected supporters a letter giving them seven days to pay the full price, or watch the tickets disappear from their accounts altogether. The governing body described it as “a prior payment issue during the checkout process” and said it “regrets any inconvenience caused.”
Ticket Talk Network, a social media account that tracks ticketing anomalies, was the first to surface the letter publicly.
The timing is uncomfortable for FIFA. The tournament, shared across Canada, the United States, and Mexico, opens June 11, and the organization is already fielding heat from multiple directions. Seats that were supposed to be sold out are still available days before kick-off. Last week, the attorneys general of New York and New Jersey announced an investigation into FIFA’s ticketing operation, citing concerns over “artificially inflating prices” and “misleading fans.”
FIFA has been running what it calls “variable pricing”, a model where ticket costs shift based on demand at different points in the sales cycle. A final public sales window opened in April, with the body noting more inventory could surface right up to the first match.
For the 60 fans now sitting with cancelled tickets, none of that context softens the ask: pay up, or don’t go.
Source: BBC
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