VIDEO SHOWS: INTERVIEWS WITH EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF FOOTBALL SUPPORTERS EUROPE, RONAN EVAIN AND SPECIAL ADVISOR TO THE SECRETARY GENERAL OF UN TOURISM, ANITA MENDIRATTA / U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP IN THE OVAL OFFICE WITH FIFA PRESIDENT GIANNI INFANTINO / FILE OF SOCCER FANS AROUND METLIFE STADIUM WHICH WILL HOST THE FINAL OF THE 2026 WORLD CUP RESENDING WITH COMPLETE SCRIPT SHOWS: NANTES, FRANCE (DECEMBER 11, 2025) (REUTERS – Access all) 1. (SOUNDBITE) (English) EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF FOOTBALL SUPPORTERS EUROPE, RONAN EVAIN, ON WORLD CUP TICKET PRICES, SAYING: “The prices that have been put up by FIFA are so high that again, we're a bit stunned. There is so much in contradiction with the very nature of the tournament, with the history of the tournament, with also the social, cultural, background of the tournament, that we don't see any other solution than to call for a break (in sales).” 2. WHITE FLASH 3. (SOUNDBITE) (English) EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF FOOTBALL SUPPORTERS EUROPE, RONAN EVAIN, ON WORLD CUP TICKET PRICES, SAYING: “This is a handful of people who are trying to make as much money as possible from the tournament. And we believe this approach is putting the very nature of the tournament at risk. Because you need fans, you need the life in the stands, you need the colour, you need the atmosphere. And with tickets that are going above $4,000 for the final. None of this will happen.” 4. WHITE FLASH 5. (SOUNDBITE) (English) EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF FOOTBALL SUPPORTERS EUROPE, RONAN EVAIN, SAYING: “FIFA doesn't have the power to control how much a private business owner decides to price the food in his restaurant, or a night in their hotel. But FIFA had control of one cost, which was the ticket price. And instead of making the reasonable decision to keep it at an acceptable level in order to reduce the burden on travelling fans, they multiplied the price by five. It is incomprehensible.” 6. WHITE FLASH 7. (SOUNDBITE) (English) EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF FOOTBALL SUPPORTERS EUROPE, RONAN EVAIN, SAYING: “FIFA needs to pause and consult. That's the only way forward. With the current state of the governance of FIFA, unfortunately, these kinds of decisions are being made in a very small circle. They need to pause and consult. Consult the member associations and consult the impacted parties, including fans. If they do this and look at how much people are actually ready to put to attend a game at the World Cup, they will realize that they need to decrease their tickets.” 8. WHITE FLASH 9. (SOUNDBITE) (English) EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF FOOTBALL SUPPORTERS EUROPE, RONAN EVAIN, SAYING: “I would say the ticket prices are probably the last drop. A lot of people that were hesitating in travelling to the U.S. are now saying that they need to take an extraordinary financial risk, especially if you're a family. We are in the region of $30,000 for a family of four. This is the vast majority of football fans can’t afford this. Even in Europe.” 10. WHITE FLASH 11. (SOUNDBITE) (English) EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF FOOTBALL SUPPORTERS EUROPE, RONAN EVAIN, ON RESALES PLATFORM, SAYING: “FIFA has allowed for the first time in the history of its tournament and probably for the first time in the history of football in general, a legal black market. Now, you can buy your ticket, and you can buy it for X price. And there are examples of tickets bought for $60 and then resold for or trying to be resold for over $2,000 because FIFA hasn't put a ceiling on their resale platform.” 12. WHITE FLASH 13. (SOUNDBITE) (English) EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF FOOTBALL SUPPORTERS EUROPE, RONAN EVAIN, ON 15% RESALE SURCHARGE, SAYING: “Running the platform is in the advantage of FIFA as well, because up until now, the idea was that, well, ‘We better have a resale platform so that people don't go on the black market’, but also that the tickets are sold because, obviously, FIFA like any tournament organiser doesn't want empty seats in their stadium. But by turning a profit on this and turning a profit on the buyers and on the seller side, FIFA is acting like a tout by profiting. The higher the price is set on this platform, the more FIFA will profit. So, where is the interest of football in all of this? Fans are part of the tournament. They're not just cash cows.” WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (FILE – AUGUST 22, 2025) (UNRESTRICTED POOL – Access all) 14. FIFA PRESIDENT, GIANNI INFANTINO, HANDING U.S. PRESIDENT, DONALD TRUMP, A LARGE COPY OF A MATCH TICKET IN THE OVAL OFFICE 15. INFANTINO HANDING THE WORLD CUP TROPHY TO TRUMP / TRUMP HOLDING THE TROPHY / INFANTINO AND TRUMP TALKING LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (DECEMBER 11, 2025) (REUTERS – Access all) 16. (SOUNDBITE) (English) SPECIAL ADVISOR TO THE SECRETARY GENERAL OF UN TOURISM, ANITA MENDIRATTA, ON TICKET PRICING, SAYING: “And this is where, again, at a time when the world is separating, in many ways, FIFA has a chance to bring it together. But when it comes to ticket prices, this is when financially, it distinctly separates. And that's where sadly, with FIFA releasing the tickets and the ticketing levels, there is a high degree of financial discrimination that people are feeling because it's just inaccessible. And that's not the point of the games.” 17. WHITE FLASH 18. (SOUNDBITE) (English) SPECIAL ADVISOR TO THE SECRETARY GENERAL OF UN TOURISM, ANITA MENDIRATTA, ON FANS LOOKING TO MEXICO AND CANADA FOR MORE AFFORDABILITY, SAYING: “Because of the initial communication going out about the tickets and concerns about the ticket prices, this might actually encourage people to pivot their point of view and look at Mexico and look at Canada. So, there are many silver linings here and there are many goals to be scored. Because really, the whole point of the three-nation bid was to enable three-nation benefits.” 19. WHITE FLASH 20. (SOUNDBITE) (English) SPECIAL ADVISOR TO THE SECRETARY GENERAL OF UN TOURISM, ANITA MENDIRATTA, ON FANS LOOKING TO MEXICO AND CANADA FOR MORE AFFORDABILITY, SAYING: “Firstly, they are much softer currencies than the U.S. dollar. So, it's going to be much more affordable for people to go to Canada, to go to Mexico, both in terms of the tickets for the matches, but also just the accommodation, the travel, all of that. So, there's a little bit of opportunity there for the countries to be able to support it. And I think there's just a higher degree of welcome. There's just a feeling of, ‘We're going to be more welcome and celebrated here and have more fun’ without the psychological barriers of, ‘Can we cross borders? Will we be welcome? Are we going to be taken advantage of from a costing perspective?’ That's always the challenge with any mega event is as much as there's excitement and squeezing as much as you can out of it, if you squeeze too hard, you actually push people away.” 21. WHITE FLASH 22. (SOUNDBITE) (English) SPECIAL ADVISOR TO THE SECRETARY GENERAL OF UN TOURISM, ANITA MENDIRATTA, ON FEARS SURROUNDING IMMIGRATION TO THE UNITED STATES, SAYING: “I think right now there's a great deal of phobia. There's a great deal of paranoia about, ‘Will I be allowed in? If I am allowed in, will my social media be checked? Will my profile be checked? Will I be racially profiled?’ And this is where I am desperately hoping that as we get nearer the games, the trust and the love of the sport will eclipse all of the concerns about geopolitics, barriers and prejudice. I mean, literally as simple as that.” 23. WHITE FLASH 24. (SOUNDBITE) (English) SPECIAL ADVISOR TO THE SECRETARY GENERAL OF UN TOURISM, ANITA MENDIRATTA, ON U.S. PLAN TO SCREEN FIVE YEARS OF SOCIAL MEDIA, SAYING: “So, a lot of it is people simply feeling psychologically, ‘I don't know if I can go there and feel genuinely welcome and feel genuinely safe’. Because psychological safety in today's day and age has actually become almost eq…
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