The world’s biggest sporting event occurs every four years – the FIFA World Cup. Thirty-two nations battle for the right to be crowned world champions over a month, and many eagerly wait to watch the action.
With such a large global audience, it’s no surprise that the World Cup is a massive money-maker for FIFA, the governing body of international football. So how FIFA makes money from World Cup?
How FIFA Makes Money from World Cup
FIFA makes money from the world’s biggest soccer tournament, the World Cup. It helps to fund other important activities, such as development programs for football.
However, this event is so popular that it generates billions of dollars in revenue, and FIFA gets a large cut of that. The four major sources by which FIFA makes money from the World cup:
- Television Rights
- Marketing Rights
- Selling Ticket and Hospitality Rights
- Licensing Rights
Their revenue, at a glance:
| Sources | Revenue |
| Television Rights | 16% |
| Marketing Rights | 17% |
| Selling Ticket and Hospitality Rights | 12% |
| Licensing Rights | 23% |
| Others (FIFA World Football Museum, rental income, etc.) | 32% |
Let’s dig deep into these four sources!
Television Rights
FIFA is the organization that governs international soccer. It makes money through various means, but one of the biggest is television rights.
FIFA sells the rights to broadcast games to networks worldwide, and the networks then sell advertising during the games to generate revenue. This revenue is shared between FIFA and the networks.
However, this is just one way FIFA makes money through television rights.
Check out some important information about FIFA’s revenue from Television rights:
- FIFA earned $6.421 Billion from 2015 to 2019. 49% ($3.127 Billion) of this earning came from television broadcasting rights.
- In 2018, FIFA’sFIFA’s revenue was $4.6 billion, and FIFA earned about $2.54 billion (55%) from television broadcasting rights.
- In 2022, FIFA reached $3.5B for Television broadcasting rights.
Marketing Rights
FIFA makes money through marketing rights by selling the rights to companies who want to use FIFA’s name or logo. These companies then use FIFA’s name or logo on their products or advertising. FIFA also charges companies for the use of its stadiums and other facilities.
Check out some important information about FIFA’s revenue from Marketing rights:
- The current World Cup cycle has been worth $1.66 billion in marketing rights.
The 4 World cup sponsorship levels:
- FIFA Partners
- FIFA World Cup Sponsors
- Regional Supporters, and
- National Supporters
Selling Ticket and Hospitality Rights
FIFA makes money by selling hospitality and ticketing rights to the FIFA World Cup. FIFA World Cup Hospitality is a program that allows fans to purchase packages that include tickets, accommodation, and other benefits. FIFA also sells ticketing rights to the FIFA World Cup to various companies and organizations.
Check out some important information about FIFA’s revenue from Selling Ticket and Hospitality Rights:
- In 2015-2018, FIFA saw a revenue of $712 million from ticket and hospitality sales.
- The 2018 World Cup in Russia was one of the most popular events in recent history, with more than 10 million tickets requested.
Licensing Rights
FIFA makes money through licensing rights and sells these to companies that want to use FIFA’s intellectual property. This includes things like the FIFA World Cup and FIFA’s logo.
FIFA also sells sponsorship rights to companies, which allows these companies to use FIFA’s events and properties to promote their products and services.
Check out some important information about FIFA’s revenue from Licensing Rights:
- The 2015-2018 cycle of licensing rights generated $600 million for FIFA, which is 114% more than the previous cycle.
Conclusion
This was a complete concept of how FIFA makes money from the World Cup. The organization has come under fire in recent years for how it spends its money, but it is undoubtedly true that FIFA makes a huge amount of money from the World Cup. With the World Cup 2022 in Qatar on the horizon, FIFA will likely continue to make a lot of money from its flagship event.
