Through a litany of prior reporting and legal proceedings, it has long been assumed that FIFA awarded Fox broadcast rights to the 2026 World Cup because of its decision to move the 2022 World Cup in Qatar from its traditional summertime window to November and December, when playing conditions were more suitable in Qatar’s arid climate. For the first time, however, a report has surfaced detailing exactly how this process went down.
According to a recent report by Tariq Panja in The New York Times, FIFA’s decision to extend Fox’s World Cup contract — which initially accounted for just the 2018 and 2022 men’s tournaments — through 2026 was made “in exchange for the broadcaster not acting against FIFA should the World Cup dates be moved.”
The decision was made all the way back in 2014 during a meeting “deep in the subterranean layer of its glass-and-steel headquarters in Zurich,” after the 2022 World Cup had already been awarded to Qatar, but prior to FIFA officially moving the tournament to November and December, where it would compete with other key sports properties on Fox’s networks like the NFL and college football.
When Fox won the rights to the 2018 and 2022 tournaments for a reported $425 million each, a process that itself has since been met with a heavy dose of skepticism following an indictment by the U.S. Department of Justice alleging widespread corruption in FIFA’s sale of broadcast rights across the globe, the network argued to FIFA that the rights were worth $425 million “only if the tournaments were played on their usual summer dates.” The implication, it seems, is that Fox was prepared to pressure FIFA through litigation if the governing body did not offer something of a make-good for moving the 2022 World Cup.
FIFA’s offering was an extension of Fox’s deal to include the 2026 World Cup without a competitive bidding process, thus guaranteeing the network rights to the world’s biggest sporting event more than a decade in advance. Further, the price Fox is paying for the 2026 World Cup now comes in well under market value.
Panja reports that Fox is set to pay $485 million for this summer’s World Cup, a price nominally higher than what it paid for the 2018 and 2022 editions, but perhaps as much as $1 billion less than what industry experts estimate the competition could’ve earned on the open market. “Industry experts estimate he true market value today, had FIFA put the rights out to tender, at between $1 billion and $1.5 billion,” Panja writes.
As legal proceedings over the corruption charges against the now-former FIFA officials stretched into the years following Qatar’s World Cup, Panja reports that current FIFA officials explored avenues to rescind Fox’s contract for 2026, even engaging white-shoe law firm Paul Weiss to discuss potential outs.
“Contact was made with Fox and its lawyers. Fox was adamant the rights had been properly secured and even produced a letter of roughly 10 pages defending its position. Inside FIFA, there was also division over its legal position, and ultimately FIFA did not pursue the case further,” Panja reports.
The decision to forego efforts to exit the Fox deal left FIFA no choice but to accept a rights fee that was well below market for what is sure to be one of the biggest World Cups in history.
Daniel Cohen, the head of Octagon’s sports media rights advisory team, estimates Fox will make a profit on this summer’s World Cup on simply advertising revenue alone. Of course, the vast majority of the value derived from massive sports rights contracts can be attributed to retransmission fees broadcast networks negotiate with pay-TV distributors and local affiliates.
“This is one of the most undervalued deals in the world,” Cohen told The New York Times.
The bottom line, Fox is coming out on top on account of FIFA’s greed (and potentially greasing the wheels to receive insider information for itself during the initial bidding process, which the network denies). Had FIFA not awarded the 2022 World Cup to Qatar (due to bribes), thus necessitating a move to November and December which gave Fox the leverage to extract a no-bid extension through 2026, FIFA probably would stand to be making up to $1 billion more on this summer’s tournament.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.