NY and NJ Attorneys General Subpoena FIFA Over MetLife Ticket Pricing: Investigation Targets Seat-Map Changes and Resale Prices Past $2 Million

N ew York Attorney General Letitia James and New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport announced jointly on Wednesday that they have subpoenaed FIFA over the ticketing process for 2026 World Cup matches at the New York New Jersey Stadium, the East Rutherford venue temporarily renamed from MetLife Stadium for the tournament. The probe sits alongside an earlier inquiry opened by California Attorney General Rob Bonta and adds a US-state-law front to the wider scrutiny FIFA already faces from the EU complaint filed by Football Supporters Europe and Euroconsumers.

What the AGs are looking at

The two attorneys general are pulling documents on FIFA's pricing practices and on changes the federation made to seat maps after sales began. According to the joint announcement, the stadium was initially divided into four zones, Categories 1 through 4, with the lower-numbered zones in the better areas. After ticket sales had started, FIFA added "new zones" and a front section inside each category. Fans who bought into the original zone structure complained they were excluded from the better seats and reassigned to less-desirable locations, including seats far from the field or behind the goals.

The price stack

FIFA's group-stage ticket prices in the US started at $60 for a small allocation and climbed past $600 per seat, per New York Times reporting cited in the announcement. Face-value tickets for the July 19 final reached as high as $10,990. On the resale market, final tickets have appeared above $2 million. In response to the outrage, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani last week announced a city initiative to sell $50 tickets to New York residents.

What the AGs said

"Being honest about ticket sales is not complicated," said New Jersey AG Davenport, "but FIFA has turned buying a ticket to the World Cup into a gauntlet of confusion, fake scarcity, and impossibly high prices." NY AG James added that New Yorkers "deserve a fair shot at affordable tickets" and that "fans should be able to trust that the tickets they purchase will be the ones they receive."

FIFA position

FIFA had not responded to CNN's request for comment on the New York and New Jersey investigation at the time of reporting. The federation has previously told CNN that its "pricing strategy spans a broad range of price points and categories, reflecting market demand for each match" — the same dynamic-pricing argument president Gianni Infantino has used in earlier responses to European-side complaints.

Context: a widening front

The NY-NJ subpoena is the second US state-law action against FIFA in May. California AG Rob Bonta requested information earlier this month to assess whether California law may have been violated in the sales process. On the European side, Football Supporters Europe and Euroconsumers filed a complaint with the European Commission on May 23 over the same broad pattern. The tournament opens June 11; the first New Jersey match is June 13 with eight matches at the venue including the July 19 final.

What could change

Subpoenas open a discovery process; documents the AGs receive are not made public unless and until a charge is filed or a settlement is reached. Any state-law remedy would arrive too late to alter the 2026 tournament itself but could shape FIFA's rules for the 2030 World Cup and any future US-hosted FIFA events. The federation has not yet publicly named a regulatory response strategy.

Reporting: CNN, May 27, 2026.