FIFA is set to make around £3.8bn ($5.2bn) from the World Cup, according to new research.
Enterprise Value and Sponsorship Returns
Analysis by Brand Finance, the world's leading brand valuation consultancy, found the tournament generated £45bn in "enterprise value". That came from £2bn in sponsorship, yielding a 22-fold return.
Sponsors also added an estimated £5.3bn to their combined brand value during the tournament, the longest in World Cup history held in the US, Mexico and Canada. The research combined Brand Finance's valuation model with sponsorship modelling across 21 official partners. FIFA was the 'ultimate winner' and projected to generate record revenues across the 2023-26 commercial cycle.
Brand Value and Expansion
The "FIFA World Cup 2026 brand" was valued at £3.8bn, with sponsorship revenue accounting for £1.4bn. That was the single largest contributor to that value. FIFA's commercial success has been underpinned by expansion. The 2026 tournament featured 48 teams and 104 matches across 16 host cities. Yet demand from sponsors continued to outpace supply.
Richard Haigh, Global Managing Director at Brand Finance, said: "FIFA has built one of the strongest commercial models in sport. It secures sponsorship revenue upfront, regardless of whether an individual sponsor's campaign ultimately succeeds or falls short. Sponsors carry the execution risk, but our analysis suggests many are still generating significant value from the tournament. The more interesting question is what happens next."
Future Prospects
"FIFA continues to expand the World Cup and its sponsorship programme, with discussions around a 64-team tournament already emerging. Historically, bigger events have risked diluting sponsor value. FIFA appears to have achieved the opposite: every expansion strengthened its commercial proposition. At some point, sponsors will inevitably ask where the ceiling is. For now, however, the data suggests FIFA remains uniquely capable of monetising the world's most valuable sporting platform."
