Global soccer’s governing body FIFA has launched media rights tenders covering the next three World Cups – two men’s, one women’s – in Laos, Malaysia, and Thailand.
The tenders went live yesterday, and cover the 2026 (Mexico, United States, and Canada) and 2030 (predominantly Spain, Morocco, and Portugal) men’s World Cups, as well as the 2027 Women's World Cup (WWC) in Brazil.
Go deeper with GlobalData
The deadline for bid submissions is April 1 at 10am CET, with the invitation to tender (ITT) documents available through the following contact points – laos-media-rights@fifa.org, malaysia-media-rights@fifa.org, and thailand-media-rights@fifa.org.
The 2026 event will involve a record 48 teams, including at least eight from Asia (a record figure), taking part in 104 matches. For the 2030 World Cup, while Spain, Portugal, and Morocco will host the vast majority of games, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay will host one each to mark 100 years since the inaugural World Cup in Uruguay.
None of the three countries included in this tender managed to qualify for the 2022 men’s World Cup in Qatar, or the 2023 WWC in Australia and New Zealand. However, Thailand did make it to the 2019 WWC.
In terms of previous World Cup rights-holders across the three markets, in Thailand the 2022 tournament was covered – eventually, following a significant rights dispute – by a range of free-to-air (FTA) partners (at least 15 secured carriage rights), through an overall deal between the Sports Authority of Thailand and FIFA.
Now, however, due to a change in national regulations, pay-TV networks will be able to take part in this tender, for the first time. A rule that had been brought in in 2013, which dictated that the FIFA World Cup be included in a list of sporting events that must be shown free, was reversed last April, meaning the event is now excluded from the FTA list.
In Malaysia, meanwhile, the 2022 tournament was shown live by pay-TV heavyweight Astro, with 41 out of 64 games also covered by FTA network RTM.
FIFA took media rights processes covering the 2026 and 2030 World Cups to nine European markets in mid-February – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, and Ukraine.
In mid-January, a tender went live in Hong Kong covering the 2026 and 2027 tournaments.
For a Asia-zone qualifying ahead of the 2026 tournament, the seventh of 10 third qualifying round fixture gamedays will take place on March 20, with the round concluding on June 10, before the fourth and fifth qualification rounds take place in October and November respectively.
Elsewhere, it has been confirmed that the final of the 2026 World Cup will involve a half-time show – for the first time, at that event – in the style of American football’s iconic Super Bowl finale.
Gianni Infantino, president of FIFA, has said that the World Cup final, to be held on July 19, 2026, will feature a list of artists performing at half-time.
The game will take place at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey (to be known as New York New Jersey Stadium throughout the World Cup), with that venue confirmed as the host in February last year.
Infantino has said: “This will be a historic moment for the FIFA World Cup and a show befitting the biggest sporting event in the world.”
Famous artists to have headlined Super Bowl half-time shows in recent years include Kendrick Lamar (this year in New Orleans), Usher, Rihanna, and Snoop Dogg. The audience figures for the 2025 Super Bowl half-time show came to 133.5 million, in the US alone.
Super Bowl half-times last up to 30 minutes – FIFA has as yet not indicated whether the World Cup final will have its duration extended from soccer’s usual 15 minutes.
In terms of previous half-time shows at high-profile soccer games, these have become commonplace at the final of the UEFA Champions League top-tier club competition.
