Just one day into the FIFA World Cup 2026, questions are already mounting over the tournament's troubled ticket policy — and the images emerging from Guadalajara are proving difficult for FIFA to ignore.

South Korea's Group A opener against the Czech Republic at Estadio Akron in Zapopan was marked by a striking number of vacant seats, despite FIFA recording the official attendance at 44,985 — only a few hundred below the stadium's tournament capacity of 45,664.

VIP sections hardest hit

The most conspicuous gaps appeared in the premium sections closest to the pitch, where a standard general admission ticket was priced at around $400 (£298). Those seats — the ones with the best view of South Korea's 2-1 comeback victory on Thursday night — were precisely the ones left empty.

Estadio Akron is the second-smallest venue in the tournament. Only Toronto's BMO Field, with a capacity of 43,036, is smaller among the 16 stadiums being used across Canada, Mexico, and the United States of America. Several other venues, including Mexico City's Estadio Azteca and East Rutherford's MetLife Stadium, hold upward of 80,000 fans, and all but four of the 16 venues accommodate at least 64,000.

If one of the smallest grounds in the competition cannot fill its seats on opening day, concerns over attendances at the larger arenas throughout the tournament appear well founded.

A policy under fire

Fan groups had already raised serious objections before a ball was kicked. Criticism centred on a lack of pricing transparency, the use of dynamic pricing models, and the prohibitive overall cost of attending matches in North America. Tens of thousands of tickets appeared on resale platforms in the build-up to the tournament, prompting suspicion that FIFA itself may have been channelling unsold inventory onto secondary markets.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has repeatedly insisted that demand for tickets has been unprecedented — by a factor of 10 or more — a claim that the empty rows in Zapopan now directly contradict.

The Guadalajara images may yet prove to be a preview of what awaits across North America over the coming weeks, as the world's biggest football tournament grapples with a ticketing strategy that appears to have priced out the very fans it was meant to attract.