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By JACK BEZANTS, US DEPUTY SPORTS EDITOR Published: 07: 04 AEDT, 18 December 2025 | Updated: 07: 15 AEDT, 18 December 2025 62 View comments New York mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has slammed FIFA's feeble efforts to make ticket prices more affordable for next year's World Cup in the United States. After fierce backlash against the extortionate pricing set by soccer's governing body, which is led by Donald Trump's friend Gianni Infantino, FIFA made a small number of tickets available for each game at $60. It's not good enough though, according to huge soccer fan Mamdani, who ramped up the pressure on the organization on social media on Wednesday afternoon. Sharing a screenshot about FIFA making a small proportion of tickets cheaper, Mamdani wrote: 'A $60 "supporter ticket" for 1. 6% of seats isn't enough. Not when FIFA just set the highest ticket prices in World Cup history. 'Thousands spoke up demanding that this be a tournament that New Yorkers can afford. 'Here's what we actually need: end dynamic pricing, cap resale prices, and set aside 15% of tickets for local fans at a discount. The beautiful game must be for everyone. ' Zohran Mamdani has called for World Cup ticket prices in the US to fall for next year's event President Trump is close to FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who runs the soccer tournament New York is hosting eight matches across the tournament at Met Life Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey - a short drive out of Manhattan - including the final on July 19. Pricing had ranged from $140 up to $2, 735 for group stage games and cost surges from there, the further the tournament progresses. Tickets for the final go up to around $8, 680. FIFA has not, however, published a clear list of prices for games, with the cost seemingly moving during different staggered sales windows that they have announced. But amid the backlash, demand for the tournament is huge with FIFA saying it has had around 20 million requests for tickets. FIFA also says that the only money it makes is from the World Cup, staged once every four years. FIFA president Infantino has done everything possible to flatter President Donald Trump in the run-up to next year's tournament, which is also co-hosted by Mexico and Canada. At the draw in Washington DC earlier in December, he awarded Trump FIFA's first ever peace prize and arrived at the event alongside the President. But Trump has also appeared impressed by the early days of Mamdani's work as mayor-elect, despite repeatedly criticizing him when he was on the campaign trail. After Mamdani traveled to the White House to meet Trump following his victory in the Big Apple, the President told reporters from the Oval Office: 'We agree on a lot more than I would have thought. I want him to do a great job, and we'll help him do a great job. 'Some of his ideas are really the same ideas that I have. But a big thing on cost. You know, the new word is "affordability. " 'I feel very confident that he can do a very good job. I think he is going to surprise some conservative people, actually. '
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