Wed Jun 10, 2026 9:27 pm
FIFA President Gianni Infantino:
"It is unfortunate what happened to the referee from Somalia. Again, we don't control everything. We try, we will discuss, we will speak, we will see. Sometimes it's good to chill, relax, we work on everything, we try to solve everything. Sometimes to immediately start screaming and shouting has the opposite effect of finding a solution.
Believe me when I tell you, we always try to find solutions. But we need to respect we are not the kings of the world who can rule over governments and police forces. We are a sports organisation.
Ticket prices, and are stadiums going to be full or not?
We sold until today over 6 million tickets, there are always tickets on sale as you know, we need always to keep some tickets for those teams who qualify for the additional rounds.
The demand has been unprecedented but not unprecedented by a little bit, but unprecedented by a factor of ten or more, the number of ticket requests we have received has been absolutely incredible.
Let me say that on Iran, I am very happy because I went to see the Iranian team in Turkey in March this year.
People were saying Iran couldn't come to the World Cup, I promised them they will come and if I have to go on a bus to Tehran and drive them here I will do that. Their answer was we will take the bus and drive ourselves if needs be. We qualified and we want to play. This is the spirit of football. There are challenges, it's not easy, but I don't know who else would have been able to ensure in these circumstances - which we could not influence - Iran could come and play. When Iran plays, the stadium will be full and I hope there will be a positive atmosphere because this is football, it's about people forgetting their realities and focusing on a match and a team.
I am very happy we managed to get Iran to come and play. I am proud of the work of my team."