Global soccer’s governing body FIFA has begun a tender process covering media rights to the 2026 and 2030 editions of its men’s national teams World Cup in Turkey.
The tender covers both editions of the iconic tournament - the 2026 World Cup will take place across Mexico, the US, and Canada, while the 2030 edition will predominantly be held in Spain, Portugal, and Morocco. In addition, three games from that World Cup will be staged in Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay.
Media networks and broadcasters should contact turkiye-media-rights@fifa.org to request the invitation to tender documents. The submission deadline for bids is 10:00 Central European Time on October 31.
The 2022 men’s World Cup in Qatar was covered exclusively in Turkey by the public-service broadcaster TRT, as part of an overall deal between the European Broadcasting Union of public-service broadcasters, announced in 2012.
The deal, which stretched over the 2018 and 2022 editions, was valued by GlobalData as being worth €24 million (just under $32 million at the time) in total.
The European qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup begin next March, with a total of 16 slots at the expanded 48-team tournament available for European sides.
Turkey have not qualified for a World Cup since 2002, at which tournament they ended up making it to the semi-final stage.
TRT also covered the UEFA 2024 European Championship earlier this year, where Turkey made it to the group stages but no further.
In terms of recent media rights agreements for the next World Cup, in mid-September Dutch public-service broadcaster NOS was announced as the 2026 and 2030 rights holder in the Netherlands.
The most recent tender process unveiled is in Ireland (also for both the 2026 and 2030 editions) announced earlier this week, with a bid deadline of November 5.
In June, FIFA announced that it would be selling its media rights directly in the Asian market for the first time under a new strategy.
Previously, rights were sold on behalf of FIFA by the sports marketing heavyweight Infront - which is now being used solely in an advisory capacity.
