President Donald Trump says even he is appalled by his suck-up pal’s absurdly high ticket prices for FIFA World Cup matches.
Trump, 79, told The New York Post during a phone call late Wednesday that he was surprised by the tournament’s shocking ticket prices, which, at their cheapest, are selling for more than $1,000 per ticket for Team USA’s opening match on June 12.
Some tickets for later matches in the tournament are selling for upwards of tens of thousands, even millions.
“I did not know that number,” the president told the Post. ”I would certainly like to be there, but I wouldn’t pay it either, to be honest with you.”
“I haven’t seen that, but I would have to take a look at it,” Trump, who has mocked the topic of affordability as a “hoax,” continued. “If people from Queens and Brooklyn and all of the people that love Donald Trump can’t go, I would be disappointed, but, you know, at the same time, it’s an amazing success.”
“I would like to be able to have the people that voted for me to be able to go,” he added.
Neither FIFA nor the White House immediately returned the Daily Beast’s requests for comment.
Gianni Infantino, a friend of Trump’s and the multi-millionaire president of the global soccer organization, defended the ridiculous ticket prices the day before during an appearance at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California.
“If some people put on the resale market some tickets for the final at $2 million, number one, it doesn’t mean that the tickets cost $2 million,” Infantino, 56, said on Tuesday. “And number two, it doesn’t mean that somebody will buy these tickets.”
“If somebody buys a ticket for the final for $2 million, I will personally bring him a hot dog and a Coke to make sure that he has a great experience,” he added.
Last week, the organization’s official resale website advertised multiple tickets for the final match, scheduled for July 19 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, at a price of $2.3 million, according to The Guardian.
FIFA doesn’t control the asking prices on its site, but does take a 15 percent fee from both the buyer and seller of each ticket, the outlet reported. If the tickets sold for $2.3 million on resale, FIFA would make $690,000 per ticket.
Infantino, who awarded Trump the inaugural “FIFA Peace Prize” last year, blamed the astronomical ticket prices on the U.S. resale market, saying that American scalpers would overcharge anyway.
“We have to look at the market. We are in the market in which entertainment is the most developed in the world, so we have to apply market rates,” the Swiss-Italian magnate, who makes over $6 million a year, said. “In the U.S., it is permitted to resell tickets as well. So if you were to sell tickets at the price which is too low, these tickets will be resold at a much higher price.”
“You cannot go to watch in the U.S. a college game, not even speaking about a top professional game of a certain level, for less than $300,” Infantino added. “And this is the World Cup.”
