FIFA and scalpers can go screw themselves.

Meanwhile, resale platforms such as StubHub and SeatGeek — and FIFA’s own marketplace — also show thousands of tickets on sale.

Even President Trump said he wouldn’t pay those prices. “I would certainly like to be there, but I wouldn’t pay it either, to be honest with you,” Trump told the New York Post in a recent interview.

And on this:

“The hope or bet — for FIFA is that once the matches start — and the greatest players in the world compete for the most prestigious prize of them all, the sport as business lens will fade into the background and the World Cup will be seen and experienced as the enduring global institution that it is,” Shields says. “We shall see.”

No way. You can’t separate the two anymore. The pretense of “that income mostly benefitting the sport” is kinda laughable now.