ITV made a zero-pounds bid to broadcast Fifa’s Club World Cup finals this summer, reasoning that the world governing body might just give it the rights free of charge if it agreed to put games on its main terrestrial channels.
The Club World Cup is running for the first time in its current format this summer in the United States, with 32 clubs from around the world, and Fifa president Gianni Infantino having staked his reputation on its success.
The global rights were acquired in December by streaming platform DAZN for around $1 billion, a deal that was widely regarded to be a way of Saudi Arabia indirectly funding the tournament for Fifa.
That was borne out by a subsequent sale this month of a minority stake in DAZN to SURJ Sports Investment, a company under the auspices of the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF).
That has solved the question of how Fifa will pay the kind of prize money expected by leading participating European clubs like Real Madrid, Paris St-Germain, Bayern Munich, Manchester City and Chelsea. DAZN, meanwhile, will follow through with its promise of a free streaming service.
It is understood that ITV made the offer in the belief that a commitment alone to invest in some production costs and give the games some projection to a wider audience might be enough to tempt Fifa.
ITV did not go as far as committing any funds towards the project, which is Infantino’s attempt to get in on the lucrative rights market for the world’s most popular club competitions. That is currently dominated by Uefa’s Champions League and the English Premier League.
DAZN is understood to be undecided about sublicensing the rights to games to a British broadcaster. The streamer is hopeful that many British fans will log in to its own service to watch the games, primarily those involving City and Chelsea. It is streaming all 63 games live and free to air for the tournament that runs from mid-June to the final on July 13 in the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
There has been disquiet among many of Fifa’s longstanding commercial partners that the new Club World Cup will not be included in the inventory of the extensive commercial deals that had been agreed in the past.
Fifa has seven commercial partners including the world’s biggest company Aramco, the Saudi oil and gas company. Thus far Fifa has only announced that one of them, Coca-Cola, is an official 2025 Club World Cup partner. The other three confirmed Club World Cup partners – brewer Michelob, Bank Of America, and Chinese electrical-appliance manufacturer Hisense are not among the roster of global Fifa partners.
An ITV spokesperson said: “We would never comment on speculative contractual matters.”
