WITH THE CLOCK TICKING down for the World Cup kick-off next month, FIFA’s reported “half-price sale” has failed to “move the needle” in securing a media rights agreement in China.
Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post reports that “high-ranking FIFA officials have traveled to China” and “presented drastic conditions, slashing the original demand by more than half to persuade state broadcaster CCTV”.
The 2026 World Cup is historic as the first tournament co-hosted by three countries – the United States, Canada, and Mexico. And with participating teams expanded from 32 to 48, the mega tournament will feature 104 matches, a massive increase from the 64 matches played at the 2022 edition in Qatar. .
According to the daily, the FIFA delegation, which includes secretary general Matthias Grafström and media rights director Jean-Christophe Petit, is visiting Beijing to directly negotiate with CCTV.
FIFA initially demanded approximately $300 million from the Chinese side. However, as Chinese responses remained cold, the organization recently lowered its price significantly to between $120m and $150m. However, CCTV is reportedly willing to pay only around $80m.
THE big issue of course is that with the Chinese national team failing to qualify for the World Cup, interest in the tournament has significantly dropped compared to previous editions.
As for India, much has already been reported on FIFA facing a Hobson’s choice vis-a-vis the price on offer for the World Cup media rights – JioStar has indicated its unwillingness to go above $20m. FIFA’s revised asking price (from $60m initially) stands at $35m.
And JioStar has valid reasons to be chary. Viacom18 had paid $60m for broadcasting rights to Qatar 2022, but managed to pull in only $30m as advertising revenue from the tournament. Bear in mind also that Qatar is in a far more India time friendly zone than North America.
