World Cup Story Feed
World Cup Story Feed
On the night of June 15, Times Square in New York was packed with French fans. Thousands of blue, white, and red flags filled the entire street, as the sounds of horns, songs, and the chorus of La Marseillaise turned this concrete jungle into an open air bar on the eve of the World Cup. Senegalese fans were there too, as were Algerians; jerseys of different colors mixed together, creating a sizzling atmosphere.
On the night of June 15, Times Square in New York was packed with French fans. Thousands of blue, white, and red flags filled the streets, with horns, songs, and choruses of the Marseillaise transforming this concrete jungle into an open-air bar on the eve of the World Cup. Senegalese fans were there too, as were Algerians, jerseys of different colors mixing together in an atmosphere that was scorching hot.
Watching the video, you'd think the Gallic Rooster was about to take over New York. The next night, MetLife Stadium would surely be dominated by the French.
The reality was a different set of numbers. At 3:00 AM Beijing time on June 16, France's opening group stage match against Senegal kicked off. The 82,500-seat MetLife Stadium had an actual attendance of 80,545 people. The stadium was nearly full. But France's largest fan organization, "Irrésistibles Français," had an attendance of about 650 people. A June 6 report by The Guardian stated clearly: a maximum of 1,000 organized French fans per match.
650 people. 80,545 seats. 0.8%.
The stadium was full, but the core soul of France was absent. The vast majority in the stands were single-ticket holders, French expatriates living in the US, and neutral spectators. Your national team plays in one of the world's largest stadiums, and the stands are filled with strangers.
The core fans didn't come, not because they didn't want to. The math just didn't add up.
On the resale market, the entry price for this France vs. Senegal match started at $1,012. That's over 7,000 RMB, and it's just for the lowest-tier seats. FIFA's official tickets are priced at $180, $400, and $500 for the three categories—those don't seem outrageous—the problem is regular fans simply can't get official tickets.
The 2026 World Cup introduced dynamic pricing for the first time. The Economist directly used the phrase "the most expensive World Cup ever." Group stage ticket prices range from $60 to $6,730. The most expensive final tickets jumped all the way from $6,400 to nearly $11,000. FIFA President Gianni Infantino defended this pricing on May 6, claiming an average price of nearly $500, "lower than the cheapest prices in American professional sports."
Comparing the World Cup to NBA playoff prices is rhetoric that only fools those who don't watch sports.
The $1,012 resale ticket is just the first hurdle. MetLife Stadium is in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Getting there from Manhattan requires the NJ Transit train, costing $98 round trip. Hotel prices in New York City are already high. Adding airfare and visa fees, the total cost to see a single group stage match in New Jersey easily exceeds $1,500.
$1,500. That's nearly half a month's after-tax income for an average office worker in Paris.
The German team proactively paid the transportation costs for their fans in the New York area. The French Football Federation did no such thing. The president of Irrésistibles Français, Mougin, posted an Instagram caption in all caps: "Logistics impossible, prices exploding... America is not a football country." In an exclusive interview with Foot National, he broke down the economic plight fans face, one point at a time.
The same day, another number made the plight of French fans look even starker.
Boston. The day before Scotland's group stage match against Morocco, about 50,000 Scottish fans flooded the city. A June 18 report by BBC Sport Scotland used the phrase: the Tartan Army "took over Boston." Pipers played on the streets, parades wound through the city center, and songs from the pubs rang out from morning till night. FIFA officially called it a "Boston love story."
Scotland's total population is 5.4 million. 50,000 people flooding into Boston means roughly 1 in every 108 Scots traveled to America to watch the game.
France's population is 68 million, 12.6 times that of Scotland. The number of organized fans in attendance was under 1,000.
Where's the difference? The culture of Scottish football fans runs on community organizations. The Tartan Army has decades of mobilization tradition. Pubs, fan clubs, and community funds form a grassroots network, and travel and accommodation costs are shared through this system. Watching football is an act of identity for them, not a consumer behavior. The viewing habits of French fans are more akin to a middle-class consumer option—and when the 2026 World Cup pushed the price tag of that option to the ceiling, far more people chose not to go than chose to go.
An even more ironic situation unfolded within Irrésistibles Français itself. According to L'Équipe and OneFootball, some members of this largest French fan organization took the tickets allocated to them and resold them at high prices on the secondary market. Mougin was forced to expel the involved members and cooperate with the investigation. On one hand, regular fans complain tickets are too expensive to buy. On the other, some within the organization are profiting from high-price ticket scalping. The empty seats in the stands are physical evidence of this rift.
Senegalese fans in Times Square repeatedly brought up the year 2002.
May 31 of that year, Seoul. Senegal, in their first World Cup appearance, defeated the defending champions France 1-0 in the opening match. Papa Bouba Diop scored in the 30th minute, and his shirt-off celebration became one of the most iconic images of that tournament. France arrived in Korea/Japan as the reigning champions of both the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000, with a squad featuring Zidane, Henry, Vieira, Thuram, Desailly, and goalkeeper Barthez. Zidane missed the opener due to a torn thigh muscle, and France was eliminated in the group stage without scoring a single goal in three matches.
The current coach of Senegal, Aliou Cissé, was the captain of that 2002 team. Before the match, he told The Guardian simply: "It was historic."
His tone was very flat, but the weight was immense.
France won this time. 3-1. Mbappé scored twice, including a goal in the 90+6th minute, becoming France's all-time top scorer. Barcola scored in the 82nd minute. Senegal's coach, Pape Thiaw, said before the match: "We go into every game intending to win ... They have world-class players." They certainly gave France a headache, but Mbappé was too strong.
The 650 Irrésistibles Français members were scattered among the 80,545 spectators in the stands, almost drowned out by the noise of neutral fans.
Diop passed away in 2020. The image of him sprinting bare-chested after his goal is forever frozen in that May night in Seoul. Twenty-four years later in New Jersey, the French won. But the people who should have been in the stands, shouting themselves hoarse, weren't there.