FIFA President Gianni Infantino told representatives of the governing body’s member associations over the weekend that he believes FIFA “can top the $15 billion mark” in revenue during the four-year cycle that includes the just-completed 2026 World Cup in North America. The remark, which FIFA included in a public communication Saturday, has been misinterpreted by several media outlets over the past two days as a revenue figure for the World Cup itself.
A FIFA spokesperson confirmed that the figure represents Infantino’s expectation for FIFA’s total revenue across the entire 2023-2026 cycle. While the World Cup accounts for most of FIFA’s revenue in a given four-year cycle, the revenue projection also includes $2B generated by last summer’s Club World Cup in North America and $570M generated by the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, along with revenue from other FIFA events and commercial activity during the four-year period. FIFA’s most recent revenue projection for the cycle, issued prior to the World Cup, was $13B. If Infantino’s $15B estimate proves accurate when FIFA releases its detailed 2023-2026 financial results early next year, the governing body will have exceeded its cycle-wide revenue projection by about $2B, an overperformance attributable to the World Cup.
Sources cited by The Guardian said the overperformance stems largely from higher-than-expected World Cup ticketing and hospitality revenue. That makes sense given that most media-rights and sponsorship revenue is contracted well in advance, while the tournament’s ticketing and hospitality results are more susceptible to fluctuations in demand and pricing during the run-up to the competition.
In its revised budget for the 2023-2026 cycle, FIFA projected $4.26B in broadcast-rights revenue, $3.1B from ticketing and hospitality, $2.85B from marketing rights, $2B from the 2025 Club World Cup, $400M from licensing rights and $393M in other revenue and income.
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