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≡ HIGH TIMES FOR FIFA ≡
FIFA released its annual report covering 2024 on Wednesday, with a startling budget projection:
“FIFA expects to reach record revenues of USD 13,000 million for this current cycle, which also reflects the expansion of its flagship tournaments in this period – the FIFA World Cup 26™ and the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023 – together with the first edition of the new FIFA Club World Cup.
“The revised cycle revenue foresees a significant increase of 72% compared to the revenue achieved in the previous cycle. Compared to the initial budget (2023-2026) approved by the FIFA Congress in March 2023, the cycle revenue budget is anticipated to increase substantially – by USD 2,000 million – demonstrating the commercial strength and global reach of FIFA’s tournaments.
“By the end of 2024, 62% of the revenue budget for the 2023-2026 cycle had been contractually secured, placing FIFA in a strong position to deliver its revised four-year revenue budget.
“The substantial cycle-on-cycle revenue growth continues to maintain FIFA’s commitment to re-invest its revenues in football. The investment budget for the 2023-2026 cycle has increased to a similar extent as the revenue budget, totalling USD 12,900 million. FIFA will reinvest USD 11,673 million or more than 90% of its budgeted investments back in the game to significantly boost global football development.”
The rise in revenue is amazing, powered by the placement of the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2025 Club World Cup in the United States, with some 2026 World Cup games also to be played in Canada and Mexico. The target of $11 billion was increased by $2 billion from the Club World Cup, not previously included.
The yearly projections:
● $1.170 billion revenue ~ $1.748 billion expenses
● $483 million revenue ~ $1.298 billion expenses
● $2.436 billion revenue ~ $3.460 billion expenses
● $8.911 billion revenue ~ $6.394 billion expenses
FIFA’s balance sheet is already healthy, as of the end of 2024:
● $6.146 billion in assets (up from $5.490 billion in 2023)
● $2.948 billion in reserves (down from $3.565 billion in 2023)
As is usually the pattern, FIFA’s reserves come down from a high during a FIFA World Cup year, from $3.971 billion in 2022, $3.565 billion at the end of 2023 and now $2.948 billion through 2024.
In terms of where FIFA spends its money, in 2024:
● 54.1%: $702.5 million on development and education
● 22.0%: $285.8 million on competitions and events
● 15.8%: $205.6 million on administration and governance
● 4.3%: $55.6 million on marketing and broadcasting
● 3.7%: $48.4 million on governance
Revenue came from three primary sources, in 2024:
● 83.7%: $303.9 million from marketing rights
● 9.9%: $47.7 million from licensing rights
● 8.1%: $39.1 million from television rights
● 17.1%: $82.4 million from other items (smaller tournaments)
● 2.0%: $9.5 million from other income (rentals, contract changes)
The FIFA Council also approved a prize purse of $1 billion for the FIFA Club World Cup this summer.
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The Associated Press reported that during Wednesday’s FIFA Council meeting, a request was made to explore the expansion of the 2030 FIFA World Cup from 48 teams in 2026 to 64 teams, per a FIFA statement:
“A proposal to analyze a 64-team FIFA World Cup to celebrate the centenary of the FIFA World Cup in 2030 was spontaneously raised by a FIFA Council member in the ‘miscellaneous’ agenda item near the end of the FIFA Council meeting.
“The idea was acknowledged as FIFA has a duty to analyze any proposal from one of its Council members.”
The request came from Ignacio Alonso, President of the Uruguayan Football Association. Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay will each have a single match at the start of the 2030 World Cup to celebrate the centennial of the World Cup, first played in Uruguay in 1930. The main body of the tournament will take place in Morocco, Portugal and Spain.
A move to 64 teams would likely create a 128-game tournament, expanded from the current 104 matches with 48 teams in 2026. These 24 added matches could then be given to the three South American “hosts” to give them some significant benefit beyond staging one match in South America’s “turn” to host the World Cup.
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U.S. Soccer also posted its financial statements for fiscal year 2024, which ended on 31 March and showed that the richest American National Governing Body got a lot richer:
● $192.4 million in assets vs. $152.4 million in 2023
● $78.0 million in reserves vs. $68.9 million in 2023
● $200.7 million in revenue vs. $148.4 million in 2023
● $190.9 million in expenses vs. $187.9 million in 2023
The major revenue contributors were sponsorships and TV rights ($98.2 million), National Team game revenues ($38.1 million) and $10.8 million from international game match fees.
The big expense items were the National Teams ($98.4 million) and management expenses ($77.6 million). Those management expenses covered a total of 1,564 employees in fiscal year 2024, according to the federation’s tax form 990.
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