So you didn’t get 2026 World Cup tickets in FIFA’s lottery. What now?

FIFA has completed its third and final lottery for 2026 World Cup tickets and, as of Monday, is in the process of communicating results to fans who entered.

All successful applicants have been notified via email, a FIFA spokesman told The Athletic. Their credit cards are being charged, and their tickets appear in their FIFA accounts.

Millions of other fans, meanwhile, were not chosen in the so-called “Random Selection Draw.” They have either received an email — “Unfortunately, your application was not successful, and no tickets have been allocated for purchase,” the email reads — or will be receiving it soon.

They, the unlucky ones, are now left to hold out hope for FIFA’s murky “Last-Minute Sales Phase” or venture to resale sites, which will soon become the primary avenue to the 2026 World Cup’s most coveted tickets.

The following is a guide to World Cup ticket sales as the latest lottery phase concludes.

So the Random Selection Draw is over?

Almost.

The “selection” part has happened. Some fans who were selected are still in the process of paying for the tickets they were allocated. And some supporters of specific teams are still awaiting word from their national federations, such as the U.S. Soccer Federation, which partnered with FIFA to distribute allotted “supporters tickets.” As of Monday, members of U.S. supporters groups had not received any communication from U.S. Soccer about the results of their distinct lottery.

All fans who applied for standard tickets via FIFA, however, have been notified if they were successful — or “partially successful,” meaning they received some but not all of the tickets they requested. The rest missed out.

When is the next sales phase?

FIFA has said all along that there will be a fourth and final sales phase in the spring, “beginning in early April.”

It will be a “first come, first served” process, whereby fans can go to FIFA’s website and directly purchase tickets, rather than entering a lottery. The big unknown is how many tickets — and, more importantly, what tickets — will be available.

FIFA spokespeople, when asked, have not said whether tickets to all 104 matches will be offered in the Last-Minute Sales Phase. It’s unclear whether any tickets have been withheld for this phase.

If none were withheld, it seems likely that most or all tickets for in-demand games — the ones involving popular teams or in the tournament’s latter stages — have now been sold. The last-minute phase, therefore, might only feature tickets that FIFA was unable to sell in the recent Random Selection Draw.

FIFA got 500 million requests for tickets. Does that mean none will be left in April?

Not necessarily. FIFA’s claim that it received more than 500 million ticket requests came with caveats, namely:

• We don’t know — and FIFA won’t say — how those requests were distributed across the 104 matches. There might have been overwhelming demand for all matches. Or, there might have been overwhelming demand for the top 30 matches but insufficient demand for the rest — in which case there’d be plenty of tickets still available in April.
• Anecdotally, and logically, it seems that a disproportionate number of applications were for Category 3 tickets. These were the cheapest, and therefore the most attractive; they also seem to be the most scarce. Category 1 tickets, on the other hand, are the least attractive (because of their price) and seemingly the most abundant, per FIFA’s stadium maps. So, if you were unsuccessful applying for Category 3 tickets, you may still have a shot at Category 1 or 2 tickets to that same match in April.

More information about the April phase is expected over the coming weeks.

Where else can I buy tickets?

If you want tickets to, say, an Argentina game or the World Cup final, resale sites are probably your best bet — and potentially your only remaining option.

FIFA has an official resale platform, though it has frustrated some fans, and will be closing from Feb. 22 through April 2.

Third-party resale sites such as StubHub and SeatGeek, on the other hand, will remain open. They cannot fully guarantee that purchased tickets will be delivered, because they don’t require sellers to show proof of the tickets they list. But they’re easier to navigate, and are customary and perfectly legal in the U.S. and Canada. (They impose heavy penalties on sellers who don’t deliver tickets to buyers, so the vast majority of buyers get what they paid for.)

Elsewhere, there are a smattering of ticket promotions exclusive to holders of certain credit cards, though inventory seems to be limited and prices are far higher than FIFA’s.

FIFA, meanwhile, continues to advertise hospitality packages, which include match tickets and cost thousands of dollars.

How much do tickets cost at this point?

Resale prices, for most or all World Cup games, have always been higher than FIFA’s prices. After December’s World Cup draw and schedule release, prices spiked for the most compelling matchups, and rose for a majority of matches, but fell for a handful of the least attractive games.

Resale prices, of course, constantly fluctuate as fans list and buy tickets. They settled in January, with the lowest price for any match hovering around $200 and the more coveted tickets costing thousands of dollars. But as millions more tickets get distributed this month, and as millions of fans learn that their Random Selection Draw applications were unsuccessful, industry insiders expect some movement. The more dramatic spikes and dips, however, could happen in May and June, as the tournament’s June 11 kickoff nears.

As for FIFA’s prices, those likely won’t be known until April. They rose from October to November, and again in December; they could rise again or fall in the Last-Minute Sales Phase. FIFA is using a “variable pricing” strategy, meaning it adjusts the costs of tickets based on expected or actual demand.

What if I ‘won’ the lottery but spent too much, or no longer want the tickets?

Then you can sell the tickets, either on FIFA’s resale platform (though it will go dark from Feb. 22-April 2) or an unaffiliated resale site.

Either FIFA or the unaffiliated site will take a cut of your sale, but in many cases, you’ll be able to make your money back. (And in some cases, you’ll be able to make a profit.)