Dennis Jackel thought he secured the perfect Christmas gift for his soccer-loving grandson: tickets to a 2026 FIFA World Cup match in Toronto. But months later, the tickets he thought he had purchased became unavailable. It’s a problem some consumer experts say reflects a broader challenge in the resale market.
Jackel, of Thornbury, Ont., says his 11-year-old grandson was dreaming of going to a World Cup game, saying the sport of soccer is “very much in (his) lifeblood.”
“He does all kinds of things, he goes to soccer camps in the city,” Jackel said in an interview with CTV News Toronto. “There’s quite a big interest and they’ve been following the World Cup religiously every game.”
His grandson, who has Tanzanian heritage, was hoping to see an African team play, particularly Ivory Coast’s match against Germany on June 20. So, as a Christmas present, Jackel and his daughter purchased a pair of Category 3 tickets for the 11-year-old and his father through StubHub. The family had used the platform before for local events in Toronto, but Jackel says this was the first time they relied on it for a major event like the World Cup.
The pair of tickets cost roughly $1,900, which Jackel said was steep but is considerably less than what they are going for on the resale market today.
Jackel said his grandson was shocked and “very happy” about the gift and has been looking forward to attending the match for months.
But the Christmas gift might have disguised itself as a proverbial lump of coal, as Jackel says the original tickets they thought they had are now unavailable.
On the afternoon of June 13, Jackel’s family was notified by StubHub that the seller could not deliver those tickets. In an email, the reseller said it found new tickets for them and instructed Jackel to review and confirm the new tickets.
“When you click on the renew or review your tickets, there was nothing there, and that happened three times,” Jackel recounted, adding how his daughter later called the resale platform for answers but they could not provide clear responses.
About 30 minutes before Jackel’s interview with CTV News, he said his daughter called StubHub again.
“They’re claiming now that there are no tickets available. The tickets that you can see online are actually sellers’ tickets, they aren’t StubHub tickets per se, which I’m not quite sure that makes sense,” Jackel said.
Jackel’s story is one of many, as several fans who have bought World Cup tickets through the resale platform have expressed frustrations online that their purchases were no longer available.
How can resale tickets become unavailable?
Joseph DeMarinis, founder of BookSeats, tells CTV News Toronto that the way FIFA released its primary inventory of tickets has caused issues in the resale market. After all, FIFA sold their tickets as tiered categories rather than assigning specific seats at the time of purchase.
“Essentially a number of resale platforms had decided when World Cup was released, or when the schedule for World Cup was released, that they were going to allow sellers or suppliers within their platform to sell tickets without having proof that they actually own that inventory or that ticket,” DeMarinis said, adding that was something his company projected would be a problem and decided to disallow sellers on their platform from posting tickets without having the seats vetted.
“Whereas some of these other secondary platforms have been essentially selling tickets on spec, which means that sellers can just say, ‘Yep, I have a … category two ticket, I’m going to list it at $1,000,’ but they don’t actually own that ticket yet or might not have owned that ticket.”
Cheri Bradish, director of Future Sport Lab and Sport Initiatives at Toronto Metropolitan University, called the situation “unfortunate” from a consumer perspective, especially as many of the tickets to Toronto Stadium matches were carried exorbitant prices. However, Bradish says there has been clear messaging from FIFA on how to purchase tickets for the major sporting event.
“I do believe the information publicly was pretty clear to use authorized websites, which is the FIFA website,” Bradish said. “It’s an unfortunate (oversight) maybe trying these other options, but that being said, I don’t feel the website’s particularly easy to navigate or provides a lot of options in the way we see other events that come to the city.”
In a statement to CTV News Toronto, StubHub said many of the issues that fans are facing through their platform trace back to FIFA’s technology infrastructure, ticket transfer restrictions, and FWC2026 Mobile Tickets app.
“Regardless of the cause, when sellers don’t deliver tickets on time, StubHub investigates and takes swift action in line with our Terms & Conditions, including permanent bans and financial penalties,” the statement reads.
StubHub continued to say all of its orders are protected by its FanProtect Guarantee, where the platform works to find a comparable, or better, replacement or issue a refund to fans.
Roughly two hours after Jackel spoke with CTV News Toronto, StubHub said they had provided the family with upgraded replacement tickets. Jackel confirmed they received Category 1 tickets to Saturday’s match and that they were able to download them.
“I mean to tell you the truth, I wasn’t really expecting that StubHub was going to get us tickets, but they did. So, for that, we’re entirely grateful,” Jackel said.
In a message to CTV News, 11-year-old Lincoln thanked those who came to his aid to attend the game.
“I’m so grateful that there are kind people in the world who helped us solve this. I’m so thankful to everyone and really excited for Saturday.”
