As World Cup ticket prices continue to be debated, FIFA president Gianni Infantino declared they are in line with most American sporting events.

FIFA has come under fire for the cost of tickets to the quadrennial tournament that starts June 11 in the United States, Mexico and Canada, but Infantino said market rates have to be applied.

“In the U.S., it is permitted to resell tickets as well, so if you were to sell tickets at the price which is too low, these tickets will be resold at a much higher price,” Infantino said Tuesday at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills. “And as a matter of fact, even though some people are saying that the ticket prices we have are high, they still end up on the resale market at an even higher price, more than double our price.”

A quick look Wednesday on the Ticketmaster website for the June 19 group-stage match between the United States and Australia in Seattle certainly didn’t display any bargains.

The lowest price for two tickets early Wednesday evening was a resale pair for $2,725.10, which broke down to $2,290 for the tickets and $435.10 in service fees. However, a new search 30 minutes later showed the total price climbing to $2,770.90 for seats high in the upper deck along the sideline at Lumen Field. For fans more familiar with football than futbol, they could be considered on the 25-yard line.

On its own market place, FIFA takes a 15% purchase fee from the buyer of a resold ticket and a 15% free from the seller.

However, Infantino said World Cup prices are not out of line.

“We have 25% of the group stage tickets which can be bought for less than $300,” Infantino said. “You cannot go to watch in the U.S. a college game, not even speaking about a top professional game of a certain level, for less than $300. And this is the World Cup.”

Last month, FIFA had four tickets for the World Cup final in East Rutherford, N.J. listed for just under $2.3 million apiece. They were in the lower deck behind the goal.

“If some people put on the resale market some tickets for the final at $2 million, No. 1, it doesn’t mean that the tickets cost $2 million, and No. 2, it doesn’t mean that somebody will buy these tickets,” Infantino said.

“And if somebody buys a ticket for the final for $2 million, I will personally bring a hot dog and a Coke to make sure that he has a great experience.”

–Field Level Media

Few places on earth must feel more comfortable to Rory McIlroy than Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, N.C.

And with Scottie Scheffler taking the week off, the Northern Irishman is favored to win the Truist Championship for a record fifth time when the signature event field tees off Thursday.

“I really feel like this tournament … got my career going, especially on the PGA Tour,” McIlroy said this week. “Getting my first win on Tour in 2010. Then it’s been a pretty fruitful place since then.”

McIlroy prevailed at the tournament at Quail Hollow, previously called the Wells Fargo Championship and the Quail Hollow Championship, in 2010, 2015, 2021 and 2024. Sepp Straka is the defending champion this week, but the Austrian won the 2025 Truist at Philadelphia Cricket Club, a one-year relocation as Quail Hollow hosted the PGA Championship instead.

It’s the final week before players head to Aronimink Golf Club for the PGA, and while Scheffler is preparing for the second major of the year at home, most of the rest of the top 10 in the world are in Charlotte. McIlroy is hungry to add to his six major titles after repeating as Masters champion earlier this spring.

“I’ve spoke about this a lot, I felt like winning the Grand Slam (in 2025) was like this — was going to be this life-changing thing and in some ways it was, but in other ways I had to remember like, ‘No, I still have a lot of my career left and I want to keep playing and keep competing,'” McIlroy said.

“I’m excited for the road ahead. I’m excited for this week, I’m excited for Aronimink next week.”

While McIlroy has shown top form this season, there may be no hotter players in the sport than the duo of Matt Fitzpatrick and Cameron Young.

Fitzpatrick has won three of his past four starts and two straight at the RBC Heritage and Zurich Classic of New Orleans, the latter a team event he played with his brother Alex. The Englishman could become the first player to win three PGA Tour starts in a row since Dustin Johnson in 2017.

Young won The Players Championship in March and doubled his win total for the year at last week’s Cadillac Championship, also a signature event.

“For me at the moment, I think it’s just trying to maintain the same approach each week,” Young said, noting how he took three weeks off between The Players and the Masters. “… I feel like I just picked up where I left off after The Players in terms of mindset and physically I had had time to practice at home. I think it’s a good thing to learn for me that, you know, I can take a couple weeks off and just come back and keep beating the same process.”

Golfers are trading in Trump National Doral’s “Blue Monster” for Quail Hollow’s “Green Mile,” a brutally challenging three-hole finish with two long par-4s and a precarious par-3 17th with water surrounding more than half the green.

“I think with the weather we had last year for the PGA the greens were a little bit softer, the rough was a little bit higher,” Fitzpatrick said. “This week it’s actually the opposite. The greens seem to be very, very firm and the rough’s a little shorter, which is nice. Yeah, I’m really kind of shocked at how firm the greens are right now and that’s definitely going to make it a great test.”

Seventy-two golfers will play in the no-cut, $20 million event. If the winner is not already qualified for the PGA Championship, he will be added to next week’s field.

–Field Level Media

Max Holloway is working out in preparation for a fight that might never occur, but as he sees it, there’s really no other choice.

“I mean, it’s just, it sucks,” Hollway said in an interview with Paramount+. “I would just like to get one back.”

The former UFC featherweight champion is in training camp for a potential rematch with double title winner Conor McGregor in Las Vegas this July at UFC 329, but without a signed contract in hand.

The uncertainty is due in part to questions over when or if McGregor wants to step back into the Octagon, especially considering the Irishman hasn’t fought since July 2021. McGregor was rumored to be on the card scheduled for the White House this summer, but his purported opponent, Michael Chandler, instead will oppose Mauricio Ruffy.

Still, Holloway is expressing unfailing interest in trying to secure a deal to face off against McGregor again. The two squared off in 2013 and McGregor won by unanimous decision, though McGregor left the match with a torn ACL.

“My head space is good, it’s straight,” Holloway said. “I kinda know when I fight. We kinda know where we want to fight, why we want to fight, so just getting in the gym, getting there, getting it done.

“It’s a huge fight. Anything with Conor McGregor is huge, but having history with the dude, being able to get one back would be cool.”

Holloway is eager to erase the poor impression left by a one-sided loss to Charles Oliveira last time out, a March 7 unanimous-decision defeat that cost him the symbolic BMF title that rests with the UFC’s “baddest” competitor.

“You’re only as good as your last fight, they say, and we’re going to get everybody forgetting about that last fight as soon as possible,” Holloway said.

For McGregor, the biggest draw in the sport and the first athlete in the sport to hold two weight class titles simultaneously (featherweight and lightweight), it would mark a return from a devastating broken tibia and ensuing drug suspension that have sidelined “Notorious” for the better part of five years.

Holloway, a 34-year-old Honolulu native, projects as a heavy favorite over McGregor, 37, due to the latter’s long layoff.

–Field Level Media