Fifa expects World Cup 2026 to generate up to $15b in revenues: Infantino

Fifa President Gianni Infantino has said the resounding success of the Fifa World Cup 2026 in Canada, Mexico and the United States has provided new "opportunities that we don’t use today” for investment in the game and states that he aims to "unleash the commercial potential and opportunity that Fifa has” to support global football development.

As a non-profit organisation, Fifa invests revenues from its tournaments and events into growing the game across its 211 FIFA Member Associations (MA) with the FifaWorld Cup the largest contributor.

Referring to the anticipated revenues generated by the tournament as part of the entire 2023-2026 cycle, the FIFA President said, "I think we can top the $15 billion mark”, thus providing football’s world governing body with unprecedented resources to put at the disposal of its MAs.

"I think I can say that this Fifa World Cup here in particular has opened a lot of doors, a lot of opportunities, a lot of possibilities,” he told MA representatives at a meeting in New York, USA, on the eve of the Fifa World Cup 2026 final. "This will have an impact on what we can do all over the world, but the revenues and the financial economic success come only if the sporting side is right. If we do the right thing from a sporting point of view.

Infantino highlighted the latest increase in funding, which is expected to reach a record $2.7 billion for the 2027-2030 cycle. That marks an eight-fold increase compared to the initiative’s launch ten years ago, and means that during Infantino’s tenure, Fifa has invested $5.1 billion into global football development across its MAs.

WAM