What, Did FIFA Forget to Bribe Ken Paxton Before the World Cup?
The idea of a man with as many allegations as Ken Paxton going after FIFA for its ticket-selling practices is pretty rich.
Photo via Getty Images SplinterSports Ken Paxton
Here’s a headline I certainly would not have expected to see crop up this week: Texas Attorney General and newly chosen Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton announced that his department was opening up an investigation into FIFA’s ticket-selling and marketing operations, just days before the first matches of the 2026 World Cup will be held in the state. Both Arlington and Houston are set to host Sunday World Cup soccer matches, but apparently those events generated enough consumer complaints that even the corruption-and-allegation-wracked AG Paxton decided it was worthwhile to mount a high-profile investigation … one that quite obviously wouldn’t be able to actually impact anything in said World Cup, given that said investigation would presumably last for years. Which begs the question of why Paxton would announce the investigation at all—what, is he upset that FIFA, no stranger to constant controversy and corruption allegations of its own, couldn’t find a good way to benefit him personally?
The organization has, after all, gone far out of its way to court President Donald Trump’s personal favor in advance of hosting the World Cup in the United States, no doubt hoping that having the demagogue running the country on their side will help one of the world’s biggest sporting events run as smoothly as possible. FIFA President Gianni Infantino has found ways to both personally enrich Trump, by leasing empty, unused space in Trump Tower in New York, paying rent directly to the President’s family business, and led the organization’s efforts to directly flatter and suck up to the POTUS. The crowning moment on that front was of course FIFA engaging in the utter farce of presenting Trump with a newly created “FIFA Peace Prize,” just one in a menagerie of fake awards that have been gifted to a POTUS who is embarrassingly easy to flatter. Perhaps Ken Paxton expected a FIFA medal of his own? The First Annual FIFA Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence?
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has opened an investigation into FIFA over allegations that soccer fans were misled about the location and quality of seats purchased for matches during the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
— Houston Public Media (@houstonpublicmedia.bsky.social) 2:00 PM · Jun 9, 2026
No, says Paxton: His office is investigating FIFA out of concern for the rank and file soccer lovers, who allege that they were “misled about the location and quality of seats purchased for matches during the 2026 FIFA World Cup.” Fan complaints apparently revolved around so-called “Category 1” tickets, in which fans expected premium seating and views of the field, only to find that FIFA had later altered the seating maps for those venues, moving already purchased seats into less desirable areas. In all fairness, it does sound like pretty scummy behavior, which is right on point for FIFA. The investigation would look into whether FIFA had violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act in the way it marketed or potentially misrepresented tickets and seat locations throughout the sales process. It follows other recent, high-profile work from Paxton’s office such as cutting a sweetheart deal with an alleged pedophile.
“I will work to ensure that FIFA is engaging in ethical and honest business practices so that Texas fans are treated fairly,” said Paxton in the statement announcing the investigation. “Sports have a unique power to bring people together, and FIFA must understand that Texans take their competition—and their consumer rights—seriously.”
The idea of Ken Paxton of all people, however, being the one to take on FIFA on any subject related to corruption or fraud is rather rich. He has been at the center of an absolute litany of both state and federal accusations of misconduct in the last half decade, which led to a historic impeachment by the Texas House of Representatives on 20 articles of misconduct in May of 2023, alleging instances of bribery, conspiracy and abuse of the public trust. The (majority red of course) Texas Senate ultimately voted to acquit Paxton on all of those charges, keeping him in office. Simultaneously, the FBI and the Department of Justice spent years investigating Paxton over some of the same allegations of corruption and bribery–accusations originally broached by his own whistleblowing aides who reported Paxton to the FBI in 2020. They accused the AG of bribery and using his office to help a campaign contributor, Nate Paul, who was employing a woman with whom Paxton has since acknowledged he was also having a tawdry extramarital affair. Paul ended up taking the fall, pleading guilty to a federal charge of making false statements to banks to obtain millions in loans, while the Biden-era DOJ decided in the outgoing Biden’s lame duck period not to charge Paxton, likely out of knowledge that the prosecution would be thrown out by the incoming second Trump administration.
As TJ Turner, an attorney for one of the whistleblowing Paxton aides told the Associated Press at the time: “After the November election, the DOJ accepted a guilty plea from Nate Paul and is apparently letting Ken Paxton escape justice. DOJ clearly let political cowardice impact its decision. The whistleblowers—all strong conservatives—did the right thing and continue to stand by their allegations of Paxton’s criminal conduct.”
Felon Ken Paxton agreed to community service & paying restitution to avoid trial in securities fraud case.
Paxton was also required to take 15 hrs of legal ethics courses and pay those he defrauded.
Pretty sure he skipped the ethics class.
share.google/drkUUtGRUQiL…
— Hedy Lamarr (@chudonew.bsky.social) 4:46 PM · Aug 8, 2025
Oh, and I forgot to even mention the nine years the state spent pursuing sprawling securities fraud charges against Ken Paxton, only to have him agree to a pretrial agreement just before the case was to finally go to trial, dropping the charges in exchange for Paxton paying restitution and completing 100 hours of community service. I wonder if he’s taken the 15 required hours of legal ethics courses yet? Is anyone checking up on that?
So yeah, you’ll have to forgive us if we have a difficult time picturing Ken Paxton, Champion of Consumer Interests when it comes to the topic of FIFA World Cup match tickets in Texas. Frankly, we’re surprised that Paxton even has a moment to divert a tiny bit of attention toward such a topic, when he’s just won the Republican nomination for the Senate (with Papa Trump’s blessing), and is looking ahead to a massive November showdown with rising Democratic star and energetic Senate candidate James Talarico, who is nearly 30 years his junior. Democratic hopes of somehow flipping the Senate blue during the 2026 midterm elections rest heavily on this race, even though the prospect of a Blue Texas has been frustratingly out of reach of Democrats for decades. Most recent polling has shown a roughly dead heat between Paxton and Talarico, demonstrating that Democrats at least theoretically have a real chance, largely due to the deeply flawed and compromised candidate Paxton (and his many scandals) clearly represents.
Perhaps the current AG and prospective Senator hopes that by taking aim against FIFA, he’ll somehow shore up support in the soccer-loving corner of the Texas electorate. Here’s hoping that Paxton’s corruption will be punished by Texas voters and that FIFA will eventually get punished for its greed.
Keep scrolling for more great stories.