\nDOHA, Qatar, Nov 20 (AP) \u2014 FIFA earned record revenues of $7.5 billion in the four years of commercial deals tied to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the governing body of soccer said Sunday.
\nThe last three sponsors \u2014 two American and one from the Middle East \u2014 were announced hours before the opening game: YouTube, Visit Las Vegas and Fine Hygienic Holding, all in the third-tier category of regional sponsors.
\nThe late arrivals to complete the slate of World Cup sponsors helped lift FIFA\u2019s four-year income to more than $1 billion ahead of the previous commercial cycle linked to the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
\nThe numbers were revealed Sunday at a closed-doors meeting of more than 200 FIFA member federations whose cash grants from the Switzerland-based soccer body have risen sharply since Gianni Infantino was elected in 2016.
\nThe extra income was buoyed by commercial deals with state-backed companies in the gas-rich World Cup host country. Qatar Energy joined as a top-tier sponsor, and new third-tier sponsors include Qatari bank QNB and telecoms firm Ooredoo.
\nFIFA also added second-tier sponsor deals this year from financial platform crypto.com and a blockchain provider that became its first new American sponsor in more than a decade.
\nKey broadcast deals for this year\u2019s World Cup were signed during Sepp Blatter\u2019s presidency in two-tournament deals that included the Russia and Qatar tournaments. They included deals with Fox in the United States and Qatari broadcaster BeIN Sports that were sealed in 2011.
\nFIFA\u2019s reserves will rise to about $2.5 billion despite the COVID-19 pandemic. FIFA was prepared to use that cash to help members through uncertainty in 2020 when national team soccer and World Cup qualifying games were almost entirely shut down.
\nRevenues are likely to approach $10 billion for the next four years thanks to a new financial strategy for women\u2019s soccer and the expanded 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
\nSeparate sponsor deals for women\u2019s soccer are being signed for the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
\nThe 2026 men\u2019s tournament will have 48 teams instead of 32.
\nFIFA has an almost blank slate for the 2026 edition with top-tier sponsors Coca-Cola, Adidas and Wanda the only deals currently extended.
\nFIFA pledged to give more money to member federations when they gathered in Qatar in March, promising their basic grant from Zurich would rise by 33% to $8 million in total from 2023-27.
\nOn his election day in 2016, Infantino promised voters: \u201cIt\u2019s your money, not FIFA\u2019s money.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DOHA, Qatar, Nov 20 (AP) \u2014 FIFA earned record revenues of $7.5 billion in the four years of commercial deals tied to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the governing body of soccer said Sunday. The last three sponsors \u2014 two American and one from the Middle East \u2014 were announced hours before the opening […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-205313","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205313\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}