Phil Egan

On those ticket prices, Infantino says the pricing for the World Cup is fair.

The tournament organizers are facing legal action with the subpoena brought by New York and New Jersey over ticketing practices.

Ahead of the tournament opener in Mexico City, Infantinos said that if they had sold tickets too cheaply, they would have become inflated on resale sites.

Football broadcaster Antonio Rusique joined Owen Sheahan on the football show last night to give the perspective from Mexico.

And with Mexico City littered by roadblocks by teachers protesting for better pay conditions, Rusique explained why the Mexican people want to be proud of the show they put on for the world.

I have absolutely no doubt that that's going to be the case.

And to be honest with you, the real mood for most of the Irish is just the fear of missing out, thinking of what could have been had Ireland actually qualified because it would have been a very Mexican experience for the Irish fans.

But it's interesting what you say there about the government in terms of missing the opportunity to make the country shine.

To what extent was their focus diverted by the idea of security and ensuring that there was a big security presence and an army presence, in fact, around the country?

Because certainly when the Republic of Ireland were playing their playoff back in March, it was shortly after the killing of El Mencho and the violence in Jalisco.

And I presume that had a lingering impact on the focus of this government towards this World Cup.

Yesterday on Off the Balls Inside the Odds, Michael McCarthy, Matthew Brennan and David Wilson sat down and they discussed some of the opening games of the World Cup.

Scotland take on Haiti in the early hours of Sunday morning and the three lads have some trepidation for Steve Clarke's men who are in the same group as well as Brazil and Morocco.

You're hoping there'll be a buzz.

If you want to hear that back in full, you can do so now in your OTB Football podcast feed for free.

Former US goalkeeper Brad Friedel joined Owen on the football show last night.

The former Liverpool, Blackburn, Aston Villa and Tottenham keeper played at two World Cups, including a run to the quarterfinals in 2002.

As the US is one of the hosts this summer, Friedel recalled playing against the 2002 co-host South Korea in Daegu.

Just to go back to 2002 once again, because for me, that's actually a mirror image of maybe what the United States are going to experience in this tournament, because you played against that South Korea team.

I think it was in Daegu, your fixture in the group stages.