FIFA opens tender for media rights to the Club World Cup and ends Apple deal

July 16, 2024

FIFA has launched a tender for the media rights for the Americas, Asia, and the Middle East and North Africa for its revamped Club World Cup, effectively ending the planned broadcasting rights deal with Apple.

The expanded men’s Club World Championship is scheduled to take place in the USA from June 15 to July 13, 2025, with the next edition to follow in 2029.

Although it is less than a year away, FIFA has not yet found a media rights partner, host cities or venues for the 2025 tournament.

However, in a statement, FIFA said this tender process will enable it to “select the company or companies best placed to secure the required broadcast and programming commitments on a global, regional or territory-specific basis.” The deadline for submitting bids is August 20, 2024.

This move means a global deal is now unlikely, with rights likely to be sold on a market-by-market basis.

Apple has been linked with the broadcast rights for the revamped Club World Cup. In April, the New York Times reported that the company was close to signing a broadcast deal with FIFA and that an announcement was expected shortly. The athlete reported on July 3 that the deal had either fallen through or was a “proposal” rather than a “deal” from the start.

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Broadcast industry insiders had speculated for months that Apple was poised to become the main broadcaster of the Club World Cup, with a deal for global streaming rights via Apple TV+. The proposed deal, rumoured to be worth less than $1 billion (£800 million), was said to have represented a quarter of FIFA’s original target.

A FIFA spokesman said The athlete It said it would not comment on the deals until they were finalised, adding that it preferred offers either for the 2025 Club World Cup only or a combined bid for the 2025 and 2029 editions, but not just for 2029.

Those familiar with the process suggested The athlete that FIFA has struggled to convince traditional broadcasters to spend huge sums to broadcast the Club World Cup. It is a new, expanded event and as teams qualify one by one, it is not clear which clubs and stars will actually be there. The late announcement of the host cities has not helped matters either. Clubs that have not qualified include Barcelona, Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and AC Milan.

Apple already has a broadcasting deal with Major League Soccer (Matthew Ashton – AMA/Getty Images)

A person familiar with the broadcast industry revealed that a major U.S. media company was so skeptical about the value of the competition that it valued the North American rights at around $30 million. NBC, which broadcasts the English Premier League, decided not to compete for the rights. However, Jon Miller, NBC’s president of acquisitions and partnerships, previously said The athlete that they had considered acquiring Spanish-language rights for their Telemundo platform. Fox Sports, the broadcaster of the FIFA World Cup, was also not involved in the tender.

Apple’s interest in securing global rights is in line with its strategy of offering exclusive content to encourage subscriptions to Apple TV+. This approach contrasts with the traditional model of fragmenting broadcast rights across different markets. For example, the Premier League has sold rights to 40 companies in 97 countries for the 2022-2025 cycle, while Apple has struck a $2.5 billion deal over ten years for exclusive global access to the MLS in 2022.

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The idea was criticised on X by Ricardo Fort, a former head of global sponsorships at FIFA’s partner Visa. He said: “A global sporting event behind a paywall would be a disaster for sponsors looking for visibility. Fans in rich countries might be able to afford a new subscription, but that’s not the case in most countries. For this event to be successful, there has to be a free-to-air alternative.”

Speak with The athleteFort added: “For a global event, a great new tournament where you should be thinking about how to generate interest and attention around the world, a subscription-based product is not ideal, assuming the only access is through a payment to Apple.

“We don’t yet know exactly how that will play out. Maybe Apple will make the service accessible, and that’s something else. But from what we know today, it’s a problem if you expect people in Latin America, Africa and many places in Asia to subscribe to a new service to have access to a new tournament. And then it’s going to be a challenge to impose the high fees on sponsors.”

In the new format of the Club World Cup, 32 top clubs will be divided into eight groups of four. Each club will play three group matches and the best teams will advance to the knockout round.

In order to accommodate European television viewers, the games will probably take place mainly on the east coast of the USA. Possible venues include the MetLife Stadium in New York/New Jersey and the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami.