Rio Ferdinand is talking about the cost of attending this World Cup, with tickets for the most part around double the amount they were in 2022. “I think that’s wrong and should be looked at,” he says. “At the next tournament, they shouldn’t be able to get to that point.”Ferdinand was hired by FIFA to host the World Cup draw in December, but he acknowledges the problems with affordability at this tournament.Analysis by The Athletic found in early June that a Category 1 ticket to the final cost $10,990 (£8,350), up from $6,730 in October. Group-stage prices ranged from $140 in Category 3 for less glamorous games, to $890 in Category 1 for Colombia against Portugal, and nearly $3,000 for the World Cup opener between Mexico and South Africa. For the first time, FIFA has used dynamic pricing, where numbers fluctuate based on demand.“I think the same thing about air travel, when the holidays are on, they put the flights up,” Ferdinand continues. “Hotels go through the roof. ‘We’ve got a World Cup, ah jump the prices up.’ Every industry takes liberties when certain situations arise. This is just a reflection of what happens in the real world.”He does, though, recognise the issue with using that business model for a game loved by millions all over the world.“It takes so many different football fans out of the equation to have the ability to watch a game, which isn’t nice,” he continues. “This is the people’s sport, but when you price people out of it, then it becomes something different.“I’d like to think FIFA would look at the next tournament and find a way to do it that suits more people, I’m sure.”Could Ferdinand, with his connections at FIFA, lobby for that change?“That’s beyond my level,” he replies. “But listen, when I do see guys that are within FIFA, we do have these conversations. I’m not sitting here just blind to it. You do go, ‘Well, how come it is that expensive?’ There are explanations that they talk about, but it’s not my area of expertise. I can only say what I feel, and I do think it’s too expensive.”Ferdinand was within the FIFA machine during the World Cup draw in Washington six months ago, hosting the live event that was broadcast around the world. Given his roots in inner-city London, he seems genuinely proud at having that role. “It was a surreal moment where you do pinch yourself and go, ‘Rah, I’ve actually done that,’” he says. “You’ve got Donald Trump there on the stage, then the biggest names in all the American sports, Wayne Gretzky, ice hockey, Shaquille O’Neal, basketball, Tom Brady, NFL, Aaron Judge, baseball. You’ve got Kevin Hart hanging about, Heidi Klum, these names are ridiculous, and then I’m hosting it.“I didn’t even understand any of the bloody permutations. So until the morning of it, and I’d done my last rehearsal, I was still unsure about what things meant. It only clicked on the morning of the actual show. The guys that helped me at FIFA were brilliant.”At the last World Cup in Qatar, Ferdinand was saying what he feels on sporting matters as a pundit for the BBC, alongside Alan Shearer and Gary Lineker. Four years on he is in Los Angeles predominantly working to produce content for his YouTube channel, Rio Ferdinand Presents. He could have been an analyst again for a major network in the UK or U.S., but he is keeping his television appearances to Fox After Hours, a comedy show presented by his friend James Corden.“Because that gives me freedom to do my stuff,” he explains. “I can do both (television and YouTube). James took me out for dinner and asked me if I’d want to host a show with him.” More on that later.The setup for Rio Reacts, with Joel and Ste, for his Rio Ferdinand Presents YouTube channelRight now, we are sitting on wide grey sofas in Ferdinand’s Beverly Hills villa, his base for six weeks, after his YouTube channel sponsorship with Airbnb, as Portugal ease to victory over Uzbekistan on a television screen attached to the wall in front of us. We will soon speak about another of Ferdinand’s friends, Cristiano Ronaldo, before heading to nearby bar Barney’s Beanery to watch England’s draw against Ghana with a group of fans, and, finally, to Fox Studios in Century City for his late-night show with Corden.Get free access to the most comprehensive World Cup coverage in The Athletic app.First, it feels appropriate to delve deeper into Ferdinand’s reasons for shifting his focus from TV to online. He worked for 10 years as a pundit on BT Sport and then TNT Sports, but gave up the lucrative role in May 2025, with his last appearance being the Champions League final between Paris Saint-Germain and Inter.Ferdinand, 47, can divide opinion with his occasionally outspoken approach, but he talks freely on any subject and hearing him invoke his upbringing in Peckham, south London, as he explains his choice last summer feels instructive.“We own it, that’s the best thing,” he says of his channel. “All due respect, I’m going on these shows, which is good to a certain point, for exposure, but I’m building somebody else’s audience. We’re in an era now where it can be different, and I wanna explore that.“I’ve never been one who wants to be pigeon-holed. I’ve always done things a bit differently. I’ve done ballet as a kid from this council estate. I did gymnastics. I moved from West Ham to go to Leeds, I could have stayed in London and been safe. Chelsea asked me to go and I said, ‘No, I wanna leave London’.“Then, Man United come, I’m not scared to say to the chairman (at Leeds, Peter Ridsdale), ‘I am not leaving your office until you do a deal’.“I’ve been a pundit for 10 or so years, loved every minute, looked after extremely well by BT and TNT. But it’s a new landscape now with digital media and social media and I’m able to build my own platform, where I have a lot more freedom, a lot more control of my diary, which is a massive thing with my family, moving to Dubai, and other aspects as well.“I really enjoy the team I’ve got, not just on screen but behind the scenes. We’ve had the biggest and best guests most consistently, I think. We’ve got players and agents asking us, ‘Can we come on?’ Whereas before, I was having to really exert myself because you’ve got to prove yourself.“Players trust in the environment we’ve created now and we see a different side to them.“I don’t want to be seen as somebody who is trying to pull the carpet from under people. I don’t want to be the guy that I hated, all of a sudden the edit goes out: ‘Hold on a minute, what the hell’s that? You’ve made me look a f*****g idiot’. Most players have had it.“I’ll probably get people who go, ‘Oh, Rio is only being nice for certain people to get interviews’. But I ain’t. I’m saying what I think and what I see, I’ve always done that.”Ferdinand says he is willing to discuss “controversial” topics with guests but judges it depending on who it is (Credit: The Athletic)Ferdinand’s network, having lifted the Champions League as Manchester United captain and winning six Premier League titles, means he has had Ronaldo, David Beckham and Thierry Henry on, as well as several more household names. His blueprint inevitably provokes the question of whether he can still challenge his interviewees.“I think it depends who the person is,” he counters. “Their narrative determines how I approach the conversation. We have had people where I go, ‘Well, I want to go into this, which could be quite controversial’. But that person isn’t at the right point in their life.”Ferdinand flags his interview with Casemiro, conducted at the Stretford End of United’s Old Trafford, as an example.“Asking a player, ‘What do you think when someone said the game has left you?’ I don’t think he really wanted it.”Not even to set the record straight at a moment of strength?“Ideally, I think he’s like, ‘You know what, do I need to?’ He’s won five Champions Leagues. He ain’t gonna really need to answer to no one. But I couldn’t really have him there without asking that.”The quote about Casemiro leaving football before it left him came, of course, from Jamie Carragher in 2024. Carragher has since accepted he got that assessment wrong, but he has barbed further with Ferdinand online over Mohamed Salah and World Cup ticket prices.“These things ain’t serious for me,” says Ferdinand. “In the changing room, I was always involved in all that type of stuff, and this is just an extension of that. It ain’t no skin off my nose. If Jamie’s got an issue or something, he knows he can ring me, I can meet him, I don’t mind, it’s fine. But I don’t think it’s that far.”Ferdinand’s interview with Casemiro has been viewed more than a million times on YouTube. After Ronaldo scored his first goal against Uzbekistan, Ferdinand uploaded a pumped-up celebration to his Instagram, which has been liked more than 350,000 times at the time of writing. These kinds of numbers are the things that do matter to Ferdinand, who is clearly invested and works a lot through a busy schedule.