By Natalia Siniawski and Miguel Lo Bianco
GUADALAJARA, Mexico, June 12 (Reuters) – FIFA reported an attendance of 44,985 for Thursday’s World Cup match between South Korea and the Czech Republic in Guadalajara, but swathes of empty seats around the stadium renewed concerns over ticket pricing and demand for the expanded tournament.
While more than 80,000 squeezed into the Azteca stadium to watch the opening game between co-hosts Mexico and South Africa, the optics of unoccupied rows at the 46,000-seat stadium in Guadalajara, a city with a deep-rooted football culture, have intensified criticism of FIFA’s commercial strategy for the first 48-team World Cup.
Fans at the stadium blamed the high ticket prices for the rows of empty seats and criticised FIFA for its pricing model.
“Official attendance figures reflect the number of tickets scanned and spectators present within the stadium footprint, rather than visual assessments of seating occupancy at any given moment during the match,” FIFA said in a statement to Reuters.
FIFA also provided Reuters with a picture showing a mostly full stadium, and further explained the reasons behind the discrepancy between official attendance and visual impressions at the stands.
“FIFA works closely with stadium authorities and ticketing teams to ensure all published figures are based on verified operational data,” soccer’s global governing body said.
“Please note that, during last night’s match in Guadalajara, several ticketed fans could be seen standing in concourses rather than staying in their assigned seats throughout the match.”
FIFA’S PRICING STRATEGY
With Mexico’s game at the Azteca always expected to sell out, South Korea’s meeting with the Czech Republic — ranked 25th and 37th respectively — at the tournament’s second-smallest stadium, provided the first genuine test of FIFA’s pricing strategy.
The crowd was dominated by Mexican fans in home colours, alongside a noticeable South Korean contingent, but only a limited Czech presence.
The Czechs qualified late in March and face demanding travel schedules in the group stage.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino on Wednesday defended FIFA’s ticket pricing following criticism from supporters who argued the cost of attending matches had become prohibitive.
He said ticket prices were on a par with other major sporting events.
FIFA has sold more than 6 million tickets for the tournament and previously highlighted strong interest from across the Americas, with Infantino saying demand had exceeded expectations by “a factor of 10 or more”.
However, groups such as Football Supporters Europe (FSE) had warned that “extortionate” pricing would exclude ordinary fans. According to FSE, ticket prices for this tournament have jumped five-fold compared to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
In May, the attorneys general of New York and New Jersey also said they had issued a subpoena to FIFA over its ticketing practices, following media reports that raised concerns about seat allocations for the upcoming World Cup.
NOT NEW TREND
Although the 2010 World Cup in South Africa drew nearly 3.2 million spectators, according to ESPN, several group-stage matches still had noticeable empty seats.
A similar pattern emerged in Brazil in 2014, where FIFA attributed gaps in the stands during early matches to no-show ticket holders.
Empty sections were again visible at the 2018 tournament in Russia — particularly in Ekaterinburg — and at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, notably during the host nation’s opening game.
(Reporting by Natalia Siniawski and Miguel lo Bianco and Karan Prashant Saxena in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford and Ed Osmond)
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