Fans stranded outside World Cup stadiums as Fifa and StubHub trade blame over ticket chaos

Bina Ramroop spent hours outside Atlanta Stadium on Monday — the tickets she had bought on StubHub for $485 each as a 13th birthday gift for her grandson never materialised. As Spain played out a scoreless draw against Cape Verde inside, she was caught in a loop between StubHub representatives on the phone and Fifa officials at the ticket booth, each deflecting responsibility. StubHub eventually offered a refund, which she reluctantly accepted as the roar of the opening whistle reached her outside the gates.

“I didn’t want a refund, I didn’t want my money back,” Ramroop said. “I wanted to go to the game.”

Her experience is far from isolated. An Associated Press journalist observed more than a dozen fans in similar predicaments at the same match, and social media has been flooded with complaints detailing undelivered tickets, last-minute cancellations, and failed attempts to resolve disputes between Fifa’s ticketing system and external resale platforms.

The majority of grievances involve StubHub, though customers of rivals SeatGeek and Vivid Seats have reported comparable problems. Interviews with affected fans and industry experts point to a combination of technical failures in the ticket-transfer process and cases where sellers may never have held the tickets they listed — an allegation StubHub denies.

At the centre of the dispute is Fifa’s ticketing app, which launched just weeks before the tournament began. StubHub has attributed the transfer difficulties to Fifa’s “poor technology infrastructure” and last-minute restrictions on transfers, and has accused organisers of “anti-competitive actions” that limit where fans can buy and sell tickets.

Fifa, for its part, has consistently directed fans toward its official resale marketplace, which carries a 30% surcharge split between buyer and seller. Many fans chose third-party platforms out of habit, familiarity, or the prospect of lower prices. Ramroop said she had used StubHub previously without any problems and was unaware of any additional risk at this tournament.

On the train back to the Atlanta suburbs after the match, Ramroop’s grandson Elijah Gomes tracked the score on his phone and tried to comfort her. “He’s telling me, ‘Grandma, it’s OK, Grandma,’” she recalled the following day. “And he’s trying to console me.”

With the World Cup still in its early stages and tens of thousands of tickets yet to be used, the dispute between Fifa and the resale industry shows little sign of resolution — leaving fans who purchased through unofficial channels uncertain about what awaits them at the turnstile.