Soccer’s governing body FIFA has finally secured a broadcast deal for the revamped Club World Cup competition after DAZN, the international streaming service, today unveiled exclusive global rights.
The agreement will see all 63 matches, from an expanded 32-team field, live-streamed and free to view on DAZN globally, in multiple languages, and includes the possibility of sublicensing to local free-to-air linear broadcast networks.
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The deal is reportedly worth around $1 billion.
The CWC tie-up marks the start of a broader partnership between DAZN and FIFA, which includes integrating the FIFA+ OTT offering into the DAZN platform.
Commenting on the deal, FIFA president Gianni Infantino said: “From the outset, FIFA wanted to have the best 32 clubs in the world competing in a merit-based, inclusive tournament to crown the only official ‘FIFA world club champion’.
“As part of that, it was imperative for FIFA to ensure that as many football fans across the world could follow the action, and this agreement with DAZN guarantees that in terms of broadcasting, the new FIFA Club World Cup will be the most widely accessible club football tournament ever.”
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By GlobalDataShay Segev, DAZN chief executive, added: “This groundbreaking deal with FIFA is a major milestone in DAZN’s journey.
“We’re delighted to have the exclusive rights to this new chapter in global club football, marking the start of our long-term relationship with FIFA.”
Earlier this year, the New York Times reported that FIFA was close to striking a worldwide media rights deal with technology and content giant Apple for the CWC – however, talks eventually fell through.
Indeed, FIFA had up until this point struggled to secure a broadcast partner, with many traditional media giants unwilling to pick up the rights as the competition has proved extremely controversial with many of soccer’s major stakeholders.
Clubs and players in particular are unhappy about the extra games and workload, with a formal complaint and legal action by the players union FIFPRO having been filed around this issue earlier in the year.
Until late October, FIFA had no sponsors or broadcast partners on board for the 32-team CWC but has made key progress in the past month with Bank of America (announced yesterday), Hisense, and AB InBev named as commercial partners (all expansions of existing deals with FIFA).
The 2025 FIFA CWC will entail a new format in which continental governing bodies will all – apart from the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) – receive multiple team slots.
Europe’s UEFA, with 12, will have the most teams. The lineup will include Chelsea, Real Madrid, Manchester City, Bayern Munich, PSG, Inter Milan, Porto, Benfica, Borussia Dortmund, Juventus, Atletico Madrid, and Red Bull Salzburg.
The competition will kick off on June 15, 2025, and will be played in 12 venues across the US, culminating with the final on July 13.
