Think $30,000 for a football match sounds mad? FIFA’s boss says it’s fair game – and he’s got Trump to thank for the whole tournament happening.

As reported by cbinews.tv, the biggest World Cup in history is finally kicking off, and FIFA president Gianni Infantino has come out swinging. He’s backing those eye-watering ticket prices and trying to calm the storm around US visa denials – while giving Donald Trump a big pat on the back.

Infantino reckons the tournament in the US would have been “impossible to organise” without the US President. That’s despite Trump’s immigration crackdown causing chaos for some. Somali World Cup referee Omar Artan was refused entry to the US and then dropped from FIFA’s list entirely. Iranian team officials and loads of fans have also been turned away.

“Of course it is unfortunate as well what happened to Omar, the referee from Somalia. But again, we don’t control everything,” Infantino told reporters, as cited by cbinews.tv.

Artan was meant to make history as the first Somali ref at a World Cup. Instead, he was denied entry on Saturday over alleged links to “suspected members of terror organisations”.

Speaking in Mexico just before the opening match, Infantino made it clear FIFA can’t tell governments who gets in. “We are not the kings of the world who can rule over governments and police forces,” he said. “We are a sports organisation, we try to do our best with the means that we have”.

His advice? “We don’t control everything... Sometimes it’s good to chill, relax, we work on everything, we try to solve everything.”

And those tickets? Some have hit over $30,000. Infantino insists they’re priced right, pointing to a handful of $60 tickets released after the backlash.

The US is co-hosting this World Cup with Mexico and Canada.

Source: cbinews.tv

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