FIFA allegedly gave regular fans the idea they had a chance to sit by the pitch when they shelled out for premium World Cup tickets — but the league secretly locked them out of the running, instead allocating all the best seats to corporate bigwigs and VIPs, according to a bombshell lawsuit reviewed by The Post.
The suit, filed as a class action earlier this month in Washington, DC, against FIFA’s US subsidiary, accuses the organizers of “deceptive trade practices” over its coveted “Category 1” tickets for this summer’s World Cup.
According to the complaint filed on July 2, FIFA gave fans the misimpression they had a shot at primo seats near the midfield sideline by including them in a wide area marked “Category 1”.
Since customers could only buy tickets by category — and not for specific seats — fans surmised they had a shot at ending up with the best spots once the tickets were actually doled out, the suit says.
But the process was effectively rigged because FIFA had already allocated the best Category 1 seats to VIPs as part of wallet-busting “hospitality packages” that could cost tens of thousands of dollars per person, the suit alleges.
“The fact that FIFA appears to have not made any of the sideline tickets available to people who bought Cat 1 is scandalous,” fumes one anonymous fan quoted in the suit.
Another fan adds: “I feel like FIFA intentionally misled us when they provided us with that seating chart, making us think that we had a possibility of sitting beside the pitch, when in actuality that was never possible in the first place.”
The plaintiff, Vera Feinhaus of Washington, DC., says she paid $1,680 for two Category 1 tickets for a July 4 knockout match in Philadelphia, relying on FIFA’s seating chart.
When seat assignments dropped in March, she was relegated to an undesirable location near the stadium’s corners, her complaint says.
The suit is seeking punitive damages and demanding FIFA cough up at least $1,500 per violation for every fan who bought a Category 1 ticket while in Washington, DC.
The lawsuit represents just the latest potential red card for FIFA over a US ticketing rollout that has left regular Joes scrambling for expensive resale seats.
The deceptive practices alleged in Feinhaus’ complaint mirror The Post’s recent expose on Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which revealed how six-figure VIP hospitality suites were quietly shopped to wealthy elites and insiders long before general public sales even opened.
Meanwhile, the attorneys general of New York and New Jersey have slapped FIFA with a subpoena over its inflated prices and seat-switching tactics.
They are zeroing in on the July 19 final at MetLife Stadium, where a group of seats were once on sale for $2 million a pop under the tournament’s dynamic pricing model.
Soccer fans wanting to attend Sunday’s match between Spain and Argentina will need deep pockets. Tickets were sale at the time of writing for around $7,700 to $112,000 across major US platforms.
President Trump, who helped secure the 2026 tournament for North America, ripped the exorbitant prices in an exclusive interview with The Post on May 7.
Reacting to news that tickets to watch the US men’s national team open against Paraguay in Los Angeles cost upwards of $1,000, the commander-in-chief didn’t mince his words.
“I didn’t know that number,” Trump said in a brief telephone interview. “I would certainly like to be there, but I wouldn’t pay it either, to be honest with you.”
He warned that the sky-high costs are pricing out the very fans who make it the beautiful game.
“If people from Queens and Brooklyn and all of the people that love Donald Trump can’t go, I would be disappointed,” he added.
The Post has approached FIFA for comment. A rep for Migliaccio & Rathod, the law firm that brought the class action suit, did not respond to a request for comment.
The Justice Department’s Antitrust Division denied a May 8 request from The Post to hand over documents regarding FIFA’s business practices under the Freedom of Information Act before the tournament’s June 11 kickoff.