FIFA pricing risks alienating premium product-making fans

The 2026 FIFA World Cup has already been sold as the biggest ever: 48 teams, three host nations, a projected $13 billion in revenue and a corporate footprint sprawling across North America like a traveling trade expo. Somewhere in between lies the faint outline of an actual soccer tournament, watched by actual people, many of whom are increasingly being priced out of it.

It is as if FIFA were standing in the middle of the world's most popular sport like a luxury landlord rattling a velvet donation bucket insisting that the rent must go up again because demand is "historic".

Negotiations over China's broadcasting rights for the 2026 World Cup remain stalled, with FIFA demanding $300 million, 17 times what it is charging India, a country with a comparable population. This despite the fact that China's men's national team did not qualify. That absence alone dramatically alters the economics of the tournament in China. Without the Chinese team, domestic enthusiasm has inevitably softened. Advertisers know this. Sponsorship appetite has cooled. The longer FIFA clings to fantasy valuations, the more sponsors will simply turn their attention elsewhere.