FIFA, global soccer’s governing body, has begun the media rights tender process in Cambodia, Chinese Taipei and Vietnam for rights to the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
A separate tender, meanwhile, has been launched - just in Cambodia and Chinese Taipei - covering the 2027 Women’s World Cup (WWC).
The 2026 edition of soccer’s premier global national teams competition will take place in the US, Mexico, and Canada, while the WWC in three years is set for Brazil - the first time that event takes place in South America. Both of these tournaments, therefore, present logistical challenges for Asian broadcasters in terms of the timezone.
The invitation to tender documents are available - in each country’s case - via the cambodia-media-rights@fifa.org, chinesetaipei-media-rights@fifa.org, or vietnam-media-rights@fifa.org addresses. There is a deadline for bid submissions of October 15, at 10 am Central European Standard Time.
Back in June, FIFA announced it would be selling its media rights directly in the Asian market for the first time under a new strategy, but that it was retaining the Infront agency - its previous rights sales partner in the region - as an advisor in selected territories.
Following the conclusion of the 2019-2022 World Cup sales cycle, in which Switzerland-based Infront sold media rights for FIFA in 26 Asian countries, the governing body is now negotiating deals in-house to “closer manage its broadcast relationships.”
Cambodia, Chinese Taipei, and Vietnam are three of the markets involved in which Infront is now simply an advisory partner - the others are Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, and Sri Lanka.
FIFA has historically appointed agencies - predominantly Infront - for selling media rights in the Asia-Pacific region, except for South Korea, Japan, and Malaysia where it has managed sales directly.
The previous World Cup rights partners, in the trio of territories where tenders have now been launched, were free-to-air broadcaster CBS (Cambodia), Chinese Television and pay-TV’s ELTA in Chinese Taipei, and state-owned VTV in Vietnam.
None of the three countries in question remain in contention for 2026 World Cup qualification (despite that tournament being set to contain a record 48 sides), with all having been knocked out in the first or second rounds of Asia zone qualifying.
For the 2027 WWC, meanwhile, Asian teams will receive six automatic slots.
in terms of recent World Cup rights deals, late last week it was announced that NOS, the public-service broadcaster in the Netherlands, will remain the home of the national teams competition in that market - for the 2026 and 2030 editions.
Elsewhere, mid-July saw World Cup rights unveiled in Albania by TV Klan.
