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Back in January, Timothy Weah, a New York City native, current Olympique de Marseille player, and Brooklyn FC co-owner, got criticized by his United States men's national team coach, Mauricio Pochettino, for commenting on the high price of tickets to the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Weah gave an interview to French newspaper Le Dauphiné Libéré in which he said of the World Cup, hosted in New Jersey adjacent to his home city: "I am just a bit disappointed by the ticket prices...Lots of real fans will miss matches. It is too expensive...Football should still be enjoyed by everyone."
Mauricio Pochettino was having none of Weah's comments and chose to openly and publicly rebuke a player who has regularly featured for the USMNT under his leadership. Pochettino told the press of Weah's statements, in part, "I think players need to talk on the pitch, playing football, not outside. It is not his duty to evaluate the price of the ticket...We are not politicians."
Pochettino also deferred to FIFA's judgment when it came to ticket prices, and his overall message to Weah appeared to be: Know your place, know your role, and pipe down.
That mini-media-firestorm passed without much else coming from it, but this week, Weah made it crystal clear that he's not been moved off his "tickets are too expensive" stance, and his willingness to point that fact out publicly hasn't wavered, even despite the pushback from his national-team coach.
It was Weah, and fellow New York-native USMNT player Mark McKenzie, front-and-center as New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani formally announced his agreement with FIFA to offer 1,000 tickets to local World Cup matches priced at just $50 a far cry from the hundreds to thousands it usually costs to secure a seat at this summer's tournament. That six-day $50 ticket lottery opens at 10 am ET on Monday, May 25, and you'll be able to register here.
Rather than distance himself from the controversy, Weah allied himself with New York's leading and loudest voice calling to make soccer more affordable and accessible locally. During his time sharing the stage with Mayor Mamdani, which you can watch in full here, Weah said, "I think as athletes, it's important to have a voice because we are the pillars of this community. We're the leaders of the next generation."
"The mayor has done an amazing job with making these tickets accessible to New Yorkers. And my job is to bring joy and to put smiles on faces. So, I'm going to do exactly that while standing by his side and making sure that we can make it easier on anyone. So, I am really happy to be here and thank you to you all for coming out," Weah continued while speaking at Harlem Tavern, an event that also featured comments from the mayor and his World Cup czar Maya Handa.
It's incredibly refreshing to see an athlete refuse to kowtow after getting criticized for expressing what is an entirely reasonable and uncontroversial opinion. In appearing with Mamdani and celebrating a move that addressed the very opinion Weah had drawn ire for expressing, he directly rebuked one of the sport's Powers That Be, in this case, the accomplished English Premier League manager now earning a $6 million salary, funded in part by a hedge-fund billionaire, to coach Weah with the United States at the on-home-soil 2026 World Cup.
