2030 Fifa World Cup

Fifa has launched invitations to tender for UK media rights to the 2026 and 2030 World Cups, with significantly more matches set to be broadcast as the tournament expands to 48 teams.

Globo’s loss of exclusive digital rights to the 2022 Fifa World Cup unleashed the potential of alternative broadcasts in Brazil, as Brazilian influencer Casimiro’s streams of World Cup matches broke the country’s YouTube and Twitch’s live viewership records.

Local sources say that Fifa’s sales team is already active in the region for sales to the 2026 tournament – to be held across the US, Mexico and Canada – and has been speaking with media companies to ‘warm up’ the market ahead of negotiations next year.

Fifa made the decision to move APAC media rights sales in-house earlier this year and is thought to have notified its two current sales agencies in the region, Infront and Dentsu, several months ago.