Jun 23, 2026
The World Cup is off to a flying start. Among the highlights are top performances from Cape Verde and Curacao’s goalkeepers, as well as household names Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe getting on the score sheet multiple times over in their tournament debuts.
But not every fan that purchased tickets to a World Cup match has been able to attend. Social media and a growing number of news reports are littered with complaints from fans who bought tickets only for their purchase to be cancelled at the last minute.
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Many complaints are directed at StubHub, but other resale ticketing sites like VividSeats and SeatGeek have also felt the brunt of fan anger.
Bina Ramroop told the Associated Press she broke down in tears when she realized she and her grandson weren’t going to make it inside of Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta to watch Spain and Cape Verde’s opening group match. She purchased two tickets for $485 apiece, but the tickets were never transferred to her FIFA ticketing app by the seller.
Ramroop went back and forth for hours between StubHub customer service and FIFA representatives at the stadium and no one could figure out the root of the problem. Ultimately, she took a refund from StubHub and took her ball and went home, so to speak.
“I didn’t want a refund, I didn’t want my money back,” Ramroop told AP. “I wanted to go to the game.”
Unfortunately, Ramroop isn’t alone.
Rozina Taguchi told Business Insider she’s still haggling with StubHub over tickets the platform failed to deliver. Her TikTok about the incident drew plenty of attention online.
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StubHub has offered Taguchi a 20% voucher on top of a full refund, and even asked whether there are other matches or events she’d be interested in attending. However, she’s holding out for financial compensation for lost work hours, travel time and emotional distress. Though, top-tier Japan tickets in the knockout stages would suffice.
Still, she and her family “don’t really trust StubHub to give us new tickets at this point,” she says.
Why tickets aren’t being transferred successfully
Incidents like these leave customers understandably frustrated. Some fans purchased tickets months in advance, so questions arise whether sellers ever had the tickets in the first place, or if they found more lucrative buyers with tickets skyrocketing as the tournament neared.
FIFA has urged fans to buy resale tickets through its own marketplace. Sellers there are guaranteed to already have the tickets in their possession, but the organization charges both the buyer and seller a 15% fee on every resold ticket. This means tickets could potentially be less expensive on third-party sites.
Buying on third-party marketplaces is also second nature to many. If you cannot get tickets on the official ticket marketplace, in this case FIFA, the first thing fans do is check third-party resale sites. In fact, if you Google “buy FIFA tickets” you’ll see sponsored results from third-party sites like StubHub above FIFA’s website in the search results.
Keep in mind that tickets at face value were especially hard to come by for this World Cup, as FIFA released tickets in stages and was even accused of trying to artificially inflate demand.
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If you bought on resale marketplaces like StubHub, you relied on the honor system — that the seller will transfer your tickets ahead of the event. That’s because third-party platforms like StubHub, TickPick and VividSeats don’t actually have tickets. They simply connect buyers with sellers.
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‘Ghost’ ticketing ran rampant
Sellers often list tickets on third-party sites before they actually have them. Scott Friedman, co-founder of Ticket Talk Network, told the AP this is done based on the hope that prices will fall closer to the event and sellers can buy tickets cheaper than what they sold for.
This didn’t happen for the World Cup, as the event has expectedly drawn significant attention from across the globe.
“This is not new at all,” said Friedman. “But it’s making global news because it’s the World Cup.”
Sellers then are forced to either honor their sales by buying expensive tickets or accept penalties from resale platforms after cancelling. For example, StubHub’s penalties are typically 200% of the ticket price.
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StubHub told the AP that speculative or “ghost” ticket sales never happen, and that it requires sellers to prove that they have tickets before they list them on the marketplace. — though reporting by The Athletic says otherwise. It’s also common for third-party sites to give sellers up to the day of the event to transfer the tickets over.
Moneywise reached out to StubHub for comment on this story but did not hear back in time for publication.
For its part, StubHub has blamed FIFA for the fans’ ticket problems. It points to the fact FIFA’s new ticketing app was launched weeks before the tournament began, which has in turn suffered from bugs that prevent the smooth transfer of tickets.
FIFA’s strict last-minute rules have also made it difficult for StubHub to process and fulfill orders. Furthermore, FIFA terms mandate that tickets have to be transferred through the FIFA app and cannot live on other platforms.
Perhaps a sign of both the popularity of the World Cup and the hardships fans have faced: if you call StubHub’s customer service number, as this writer did, and say you’re a purchaser, it immediately prompts you to press one if you’re reaching out about World Cup tickets. You then have to press one again if you are calling about a match happening on the day of your call.
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Danni Santana is a journalist based out of New York City with a decade of experience reporting and editing business stories about retail, restaurants, sports, and personal finance.
