The 2026 edition of the tournament brought in untold amounts of money to Gianni Infantino’s governing body

The total hasn’t entirely stopped rising yet, still clicking away towards a final tally. Still, Fifa has already announced that it surpassed its own lofty revenue projections for the 2026 World Cup, bringing in $15bn, significantly more than anticipated. It appears that a third of that total – $5bn – came from ticket sales and hospitality alone, per reporting from the Times.

That would mean direct income from the matchgoing fans came in five times as high in the United States, Canada and Mexico as it did at the last World Cup, in Qatar in 2022, when the total stood at $929m. While 2026’s expanded World Cup added 40 games to the schedule, the takings nevertheless went from an average of about $14.5m per match to about $48m.

It makes sense that sports teams want to keep influencers out of their games. The battle some clubs are waging with their fans, however, is a different dilemma

By all appearances, things on the Yellow Wall seemed as they always had been. The stadium announcer hollered out the first names of Borussia Dortmund’s starting lineup and the supporters responded with their last names, tens of thousands of voices bellowing as one. Dozens of black and yellow flags waved over Europe’s largest standing terrace, a mass of faces fixed on the field beneath them.

And then Signal Iduna Park, sold out with 81,365 fans, roared when Max Beier’s lone goal led Dortmund to victory over Eintracht Frankfurt last Saturday, putting the home side even on points with Bayern Munich atop the Bundesliga standings.