FIFA has officially opened the tender process for broadcasting rights to the Club World Cup in Europe and sub-Saharan Africa. As a result, media companies in these two areas can now bid to hold exclusive rights for the 2025 and 2029 renditions of the tournament. Outlets wanting to submit an official offer now have until September 24th to do so.
Soccer’s governing body revealed in July that they were beginning the tender process for the competitions in other areas. This included the Americas, Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa. The deadline for bids in these regions has since passed without an official announcement from FIFA.
Along with the revamped Club World Cup, FIFA is also expected to sell broadcasting rights to their biggest tournaments soon. Bids for future World Cups, both men’s and women’s competitions, will be fielded by the governing body in the coming years. Here in the United States, FOX and Telemundo will remain in place for the 2026 World Cup across North America.
FIFA opening the tender process for the Club World Cup comes after the organization failed to agree terms with Apple. The American media giant previously negotiated with FIFA regarding broadcasting the competition for months. Nevertheless, the two sides remained far apart in valuations.
It was previously reported that FIFA valued a broadcasting partnership for the two Club World Cup competitions at $4 billion. A deal in this range would have allowed Apple to have exclusive media rights over the entire globe. Apple, on the other hand, was only willing to go as high as $1 billion.
Apple essentially believed that FIFA was overvaluing broadcasting rights to the Club World Cup. After all, the competition is not popular among soccer fans. Players and coaches are not even exactly thrilled to play at the tournament. FIFPro, the global soccer players union, recently began legal action against FIFA regarding the Club World Cup.
With the two sides nowhere near a deal, FIFA broke off negotiations. Instead, they have since opted to split up media rights to the tournaments into regions. This is a more typical approach. Most international competitions have agreements with several media companies. It remains to be seen if the governing body will receive anywhere near $4 billion by opening a tender process.
Assuming the lawsuit does not put the kibosh on the 2025 Club World Cup, the expanded tournament starts next summer. FIFA has increased the total amount of teams in the competition from seven to 32. As a result, the tournament will expand from about 10 days to nearly a month. Instead of the traditional seven total matches, there will be 63 fixtures in the upcoming competition. This is the main point of contention for the players’ union.
30 of the 32 teams set to feature at the 2025 Club World Cup have already qualified. Boca Juniors became the most recent club to book a place in the competition. Other top teams such as Real Madrid, Manchester City, Palmeiras, and Monterrey will also feature as well.
The two remaining teams will come from the CONMEBOL and CONCACAF regions. The winner of the 2024 Copa Libertadores, South America’s top club tournament, will next earn a place. CONCACAF will then get to choose the final team because they are hosting the competition.
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