AB InBev is in advanced discussions to become the second brand to sponsor next year’s Fifa Club World Cup in what would be a further commercial boost to the competition.
SportBusiness understands the US brewer is poised to join Chinese consumer electronics firm Hisense in sponsoring the revamped tournament and most likely make its Budweiser beer brand the centrepiece of the association.
Fifa has faced well-publicised problems in kickstarting the commercial programme for the expanded 32-team tournament, which will be staged across 12 stadiums in 11 different US cities between June and July next year. The two sponsors will come on board despite the international federation having not officially announced any broadcasters for the event.
Ignoring the cloud of uncertainty hanging over the tournament, industry sources said Fifa is pitching the sponsorship packages at above-market-standard rates, with two experts spoken to by SportBusiness suggesting Hisense’s package could be worth around $90m (€83.2m).
The same sources suggested AB InBev’s interest comes from the desire to protect its pre-existing association with Fifa and prevent a rival beer brand from taking the rights to the US-hosted tournament just one year before the 2026 Fifa World Cup will be jointly staged in the same country, together with Mexico and Canada.
The brewer’s pre-existing agreement with Fifa, announced in June 2023, granted it global sponsorship rights to the 2026 Fifa World Cup and the 2023 Women’s World Cup in New Zealand and Australia.
It decided to renew its sponsorship of the men’s World Cup despite facing problems activating its sponsorship rights at the 2022 tournament because of a last-minute ban on beer sales at stadiums by the Qatari organisers.
Well-placed sources suggested other brands may also be motivated to sponsor the tournament to place themselves in a strong position to secure the rights to the main prize of the 2026 men’s World Cup and curry favour with Fifa president Gianni Infantino, who has staked his reputation on the money-spinning Club World Cup and is understood to be highly engaged in the sales process.
Sponsorship experts contacted by SportBusiness said the rights to the tournament were in some cases being bundled with regional sponsorship rights to the 2026 World Cup to increase their appeal to brands. The same sources said that the global federation has also been speaking to brands from the betting and alcoholic spirits categories.
Split rights
In a departure from previous cycles, the sponsorship rights to the 2025 Fifa Club World Cup are being sold on a standalone basis and are not included in the package of rights enjoyed by brands in the federation’s uppermost ‘Fifa Partner’ sponsorship tier.
The decision to split the rights has proved to be a bone of contention for long-standing sponsors Adidas and Coca-Cola, which believe their contracts with the federation grant them sponsorship rights to all Fifa competitions up to 2030. The Guardian reported in late October that the two brands were unwilling to negotiate further contracts for the revamped competition and had lodged separate cases with the Swiss Arbitration Centre in Zurich to resolve the dispute.
The build-up to the tournament has been plagued by the failure to announce broadcasters. In July, Fifa invited bids for the media rights in different international markets after negotiations over a global streaming deal with Apple broke down.
Just last month, sister title SportBusiness Media reported Fifa had drastically reduced its revenue targets for the event with the window to agree deals rapidly shrinking.
The sluggish sales process has created uncertainty about the federation’s ability to pay the participation or prize money needed to attract leading teams including Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Manchester City and Chelsea. In September, The Athletic reported Europe’s biggest clubs have been promised a windfall in excess of $50m, and in some cases significantly more, although doubts remain about Fifa’s ability to fund this.
Global players union FifPro has also criticised the expanded tournament, claiming that it has been staged without consideration for the mental and physical health of players and arguing it will be unfair to expect them to perform after an 11-month season, with no prospect of rest before the next campaign begins. The union has warned about the prospect of player strikes if the federation doesn’t respond to the welfare concerns.
It has since been revealed that the regulations for the 32-team, 63-game tournament include a requirement for all clubs to field their strongest teams, with sanctions threatened if they refuse to do so.
In an apparent attempt to boost the commercial appeal of the event, Infantino announced earlier this month that Lionel Messi’s Major League Soccer (MLS) side, Inter Miami, would take part.
Analysis by sister title SportBusiness Sponsorship revealed Fifa generated around $1.74bn in sponsorship income during its 2019-22 sales cycle when the rights to the Club World Cup were bundled together with its other competitions.
When SportBusiness approached Fifa for comment, a spokesperson said: “As confirmed last week at the time of the Hisense Fifa Club World Cup partnership announcement, further commercial deals for Fifa’s new flagship club competition are to be announced in the coming weeks.
“As is our general policy, Fifa does not comment on speculation about specific commercial discussions.”
SportBusiness has approached AB InBev for comment.