Over the past 40 years, FIFA’s revenues from organising the Football World Cup have risen from USD 300 million to USD 11 billion — nearly 37 times higher. In 1986, the tournament featured 16 teams; this year, 48 national teams will take part.
When Italy hosted the 1990 World Cup, FIFA generated approximately USD 450 million in revenue. Thirty-six years later, the 2026 edition, jointly hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, is expected to generate close to USD 10.9 billion. In little more than three decades, revenues from football’s premier global event have increased more than 24-fold, transforming a sporting competition into one of the most profitable commercial platforms on the planet.
This evolution is not simply the result of the natural growth of the world’s most popular sport. What has occurred is a profound transformation of FIFA’s business model. During the 1980s and 1990s, the main sources of income were television broadcasting contracts and ticket sales. Today, the World Cup is a global entertainment, marketing and media operation, generating revenues comparable to those of the world’s largest multinational corporations.
The first major leap came in 1994, when the United States hosted a World Cup that many considered a sporting risk but which proved to be a tremendous commercial success. Revenues almost doubled compared with the previous tournament, driven by the size of the American market and the growing value of television rights.
From 2002 onwards, with the tournament jointly hosted by South Korea and Japan, FIFA began to exploit Asian markets and global brands more aggressively. However, it was in Germany in 2006 that the competition truly entered a new financial dimension. Revenues approached USD 3 billion, an increase of 81% compared with four years earlier.
Since then, every edition has served to expand the scale of the business. South Africa in 2010 consolidated the tournament’s expansion into new markets. Brazil in 2014 benefited from the growth of digital platforms and social media. Russia in 2018 further strengthened commercial revenues, while Qatar in 2022 pushed revenues to around USD 7 billion despite the controversy surrounding the organisation of the event.
The 2026 World Cup is expected to mark another major turning point. For the first time, the tournament will feature 48 national teams and 104 matches, compared with the traditional format of 32 teams and 64 matches. More games mean more tickets sold, more advertising, greater broadcasting revenues and additional sponsorship opportunities. It is therefore no coincidence that FIFA is forecasting record revenues of nearly USD 11 billion.
Perhaps the most striking aspect is that FIFA has managed to increase revenues far more rapidly than the growth of the global audience itself. In other words, it is not simply that more people are watching football; FIFA has become increasingly effective at monetising every viewer, every sponsor and every minute of broadcast coverage.
As a result, the World Cup is no longer merely a sporting competition. It has become a global economic asset, capable of generating in just one month revenues equivalent to the annual GDP of several African nations. And if the expansion to 48 teams proves commercially successful, FIFA is unlikely to resist the temptation to continue increasing the size of the tournament.
In modern football, goals still determine champions. But it is television contracts, sponsorship agreements and global markets that explain why each World Cup is now worth billions of dollars.
Source: Expansão
