July 14 – On the day of its Club World Cup final FIFA announced that the sponsorship programme for its expanded Club World Cup has sold out.
Incredibly it appears FIFA secured two its final two partners – Panini and Jeep – a day ahead of the final. FIFA said that “every partnership position (was) successfully contracted ahead of today’s final between Chelsea FC and Paris Saint-Germain.”
Having struggled for months to get any kind of broadcast deal or sponsorship deal, FIFA is now listing 20 companies as either CWC partners or suppliers.
Having been saved by Saudi Arabian money through the PIF investment in broadcaster DAZN who then used that cast to buy the unwanted global rights to the competition, PIF also came on board as a sponsor to save FIFA face over its commercial sponsorship sales that were also attracting little interest – if the media don’t want it then it is logical that the sponsors won’t buy in either.
For a long time they didn’t. FIFA has not revealed what these 20 sponsors are paying but you can pretty much guarantee that they are all paying many millions (of their sponorships even hit that bar) than the competition that PIF bought. DAZN has also picked all operations and an ownership position in FIFA+. All roads lead to Saudi who have also expressed interest in hosting a future edition of the Club World Cup, with the year before they host the 2034 World Cup looking the most likely – assuming it is still a competition then.
Panini, swooped in at the last minute to become the ‘Presenting Partner of the FIFA Club World cup halftime show’. Jeep joined as Official Automotive Partner for the tournament though how they will activate meaningfully now the tournament is finished and clubs return to their more important domestic competitions remains to be explained.
“The FIFA Club World Cup partnership programme involves major global deals that set new revenue benchmarks for a standalone club football tournament, and the overall result is believed to represent the largest sponsorship revenue ever achieved for a new event in the sport and entertainment industry,” trumpeted FIFA without any substantiation of this claim.
“A new approach to partner integration has been a key part of the programme’s success, offering partners new assets and customised opportunities for integration of their services and products into the tournament – all of which is designed to enhance fan experience, tournament operations and increase visibility,” said FIFA.
Especially those joining on the last day of the competition. FIFA throughout the tournament has been insisting this is the inaugural CWC and selling that line super-hard. But in truth it really isn’t the first, it is just bigger than the last one held last December in Qatar.
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