FIFA signed a deal for this year’s men’s World Cup in Qatar with blockchain technology provider Algorand, the first new American sponsor for the tournament in 11 years. FIFA says the agreement will also serve as a technical partnership to assist with developing the soccer world body’s digital assets strategy. This would make it easier for FIFA to market soccer-related non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
At a tier three regional level, the World Cup sponsorship covers rights for North American and European countries. The value of the sponsorship has not been revealed. In its four-year commercial cycle, which ends in Qatar in the fall of 2022, FIFA has set a target of generating $7 billion in total revenue. At a business conference in Los Angeles, FIFA president Gianni Infantino announced the deal.
In the last few years, FIFA’s operations have shifted to North America as a result of the expanded 2026 World Cup that will be hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico. As a commercial boon, the expansion should be a boon as 48 teams instead of 32 will take part, playing a total of 80 games instead of 64.
However, Algorand’s sponsorship is the first American company to sponsor FIFA’s premier soccer event since 2011. A deal was signed with Johnson & Johnson only for the Brazil edition of the 2014 event, which was a key market in 2014.
There have been several instances of FIFA being implicated in a U.S. federal investigation of corruption in international soccer and of the organization’s inability to add American brands to its long-term partners Coca-Cola, MasterCard, McDonald’s and Budweiser.
In recent months, FIFA signed nearly all of the companies that will be sponsoring the FIFA World Cups in 2018 and in 2022; among them are companies from Russia, Qatar and China.
FIFA has now set its sights on the tech sector and in March announced a tournament deal with Singapore-based cryptocurrency platform, crypto.com, to be held in 2022. According to the statement released by FIFA, Algorand founder Silvio Micali said in the statement his company could “transform the way we all experience the worlds game.” The contract covers the 2023 Women’s World Cup which will be hosted by Australia and New Zealand.
