Tickets for this World Cup are fully transferable, so if you win the lottery, you can transfer them entirely. So you might think, "If family and friends each apply under their own names, our chances of winning should go up." Are you perhaps trying to create multiple accounts by slightly changing the address format?
However, what you really need to watch out for is not address tricks, but ratherinstant disqualification due to reusing credit cards or operating from the same deviceThis fact has been clearly confirmed from the actual operations of a tournament that has already concluded.
What we learned from the already-completed 2025 CWC
The FIFA Club World Cup 2025 (CWC) was a club championship held in the United States this year. Although this tournament has already ended,the identical ticketing platform used for the 2026 World Cupis believed to have been used (FIFA always conducts preliminary tournaments like the former Confederations Cup).
Therefore, the lottery exclusions, payment rejections, and access restrictions that actually occurred during CWC are highly instructive as real-world test results for the 2026 World Cup.
[Key Lesson] Card duplication was more fatal than address issues
As I wrote in the separate article about ticket application pitfalls, applications from the same address may be cancelled.
In fact, during CWC there were no reported cancellations solely because of the same address (though for this time we still do not recommend trying it).
Some of you may think you can just slightly change the address and apply, but what proved to be a much bigger problem during CWC was
reusing the same credit cardEven if accounts had different addresses,when duplicate card numbers were detected across different accounts, the platform treated it asscalper (bot) activityand either excluded them at the lottery stage or forcibly rejected the payment, with many such cases reported.
Even if you won the lottery,you could lose your purchase rights at the moment of paymentThat was the biggest pitfall. In such cases, there is almost no chance of re-payment or relief. Borrowing a friend's name and address itself may be acceptable, but it would be wise to use a different payment card.
Device and IP tracking was actually functioning
After the CWC ended, in overseas fan communities, especially on Reddit,monitoring through device information and IP addresses was actually being conductedas reported by numerous users.
Switching between accounts on the same PC and browser can lead to being identified as the same person through device-specific information (browser fingerprinting).
There were also confirmed cases where submitting multiple applications from the same Wi-Fi network in a short period resulted in an endless CAPTCHA loop or approximately 24 hours of access being restricted.
In other words, even if you are filling in a friend's ticket application on their behalf (even if they might transfer it to you later), unfortunately it may not work out. If you do it, you may need to borrow your friend's phone and enter the information from their device.
Conclusion
When asking a friend who lives separately to help, it is safer if the address, payment card, smartphone or PC, and network environment are allcompletely separateThat is our conclusion. This is based on actual cases from CWC. Especially regarding payment cards, please make absolutely sure to use different ones.
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