As the 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off in Canada, Mexico and the United States on June 11, Costa Rica will be watching from the sidelines for the first time in more than a decade. La Sele’s failure to qualify — sealed by a scoreless draw with Honduras in November — left millions of Ticos without a team to follow north. But it has not left the Federación Costarricense de Fútbol (Fedefútbol) empty-handed.
As one of FIFA’s 211 member associations, Fedefútbol still receives an allocation of press credentials and retains access to certain promotional and federation-held tickets that FIFA distributes to national associations worldwide. How those credentials and tickets are handed out — and to whom — is a question that deserves more public attention than it has received.
How the system is supposed to work
FIFA’s distribution framework for member associations is, on paper, straightforward. Each national association receives a quota of written press and photographer accreditations to pass along to domestic media organizations and freelance journalists. This process has been used at every recent World Cup, with federations acting as the gatekeepers between FIFA and their country’s press corps. Member associations are expected to register their allocations in FIFA’s quota management system and distribute unique accreditation control keys to the media representatives they select. Applicants then complete their requests through the FIFA Media Hub.
On the ticketing side, non-qualifying federations do not receive the fan-allocation packages that qualified nations enjoy — those are reserved for the Participating Member Associations through the new Supporter Entry Tier, Supporter Value, Standard and Premium tiers that FIFA introduced after global backlash over pricing. However, federations like Fedefútbol may still receive a limited number of promotional, courtesy or official-use tickets from FIFA and its commercial partners, along with access to hospitality and networking events surrounding the tournament. These are typically framed as tools for football development, sponsor relationships, and official representation.
In principle, press credentials should go to working journalists who will cover the tournament for Costa Rican audiences. Promotional tickets should go toward fulfilling FIFA’s stated mission of growing the game — development officials, coaches, youth program representatives, and legitimate partners. FIFA itself has encouraged federations to ensure loyalty and genuine connection to the sport when making allocations for qualified-team fan tickets, and the spirit of that guidance extends to promotional distributions as well.
How it actually works is less clear
In practice, the distribution of FIFA-allocated credentials and tickets by national federations has long been opaque — in Costa Rica and elsewhere. Fedefútbol has not publicly released a list of which media outlets will receive World Cup 2026 press credentials, how many each will get, or what criteria were used to decide. Nor has the federation detailed what promotional or federation-held tickets it has received from FIFA, who they will be allocated to, or what process, if any, governs those decisions.
None of this necessarily implies wrongdoing. Federations around the world have historically treated these allocations as internal administrative matters. But the absence of public criteria creates an environment in which questions are inevitable: Are press credentials going only to journalists who will actually travel and cover matches? Are freelance photographers and smaller independent outlets being considered alongside the large legacy brands? Are promotional tickets finding their way to football development figures and youth program stakeholders — or to federation insiders, political allies, business partners and their families?
The concerns are not hypothetical. Fedefútbol has recently been the subject of internal political drama, including Saprissa’s recent removal from the federation’s Executive Committee and public pledges to push for a more transparent football administration. Questions about how FIFA-allocated resources are handled fit squarely within that broader conversation about accountability at Plycem.
Costa Rica has a proud World Cup history and a football-loving public that travels in significant numbers even when La Sele isn’t on the pitch — as it did in Qatar 2022. Many of those fans, journalists and photographers would benefit from knowing exactly how Fedefútbol is handling the credentials and promotional inventory it receives from FIFA.
A simple public disclosure — how many credentials, how they were distributed, what criteria were used, and what promotional tickets were received and allocated — would go a long way toward closing the gap between how the system is supposed to work and how it actually does.
Until that disclosure happens, the questions will remain. And they should.
