2019-2022 revenue
2019-2022 revenue reaches record high
Revenue developed very successfully during a challenging period, delivering a new record of USD 7.57 billion for the 2019-2022 cycle. This excellent result, achieved despite the COVID-19 pandemic, can be attributed to an improved performance across all revenue categories and will enable investment in football to continue to grow.
The total revenue of USD 7,568 million for 2019-2022 represents a cycle-on-cycle increase of 18% (USD 1,147 million) compared to USD 6,421 million for 2015-2018, and is 18% higher (USD 1,128 million) than the full-cycle revenue budget.
The largest share came from the sale of television broadcasting rights, which at USD 3,426 million accounted for 45% of the full-cycle revenue. Revenue in this category rose by 10% in 2019-2022 compared to the previous cycle. Europe became the largest sales territory with USD 1,061 million, followed by Asia and North Africa, which contributed USD 1,025 million. The data shows that the FIFA World Cup Qatar™ was the most-watched edition in the tournament’s history, with over five billion viewers following the action through various channels, way above half of the world’s population.
The second-biggest source of income was the sale of marketing rights. FIFA Partners include blue-chip companies such as adidas, Coca-Cola, Hyundai. Kia, the Wanda Group, Qatar Airways and Visa, as well as a recent addition, QatarEnergy. FIFA also signed up seven FIFA World Cup Sponsors: Budweiser, McDonald’s, vivo, Hisense, Mengniu, Byju’s, and Crypto.com. FIFA successfully sold all available sponsorship packages for the FIFA World Cup Qatar at both global and regional levels. Together with 18 Regional Supporters, the number of partners and sponsors for the tournament amounted to 32. These companies, along with the sponsors of other FIFA tournaments, generated USD 1,795 million in marketing rights revenues during the 2019-2022 cycle.
The sale of licensing rights continued to achieve excellent results, with revenue totalling USD 769 million, 28% higher than in the 2015-2018 cycle. FIFA ran its largest-ever licensing and retail programme at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™. Alongside the retail tournament outlets, the permanent flagship FIFA Store was launched at Doha’s Hamad International Airport in November. In 2022, FIFA also launched fifastore.com, a major ecommerce offering featuring exciting new product ranges for the FIFA World Cup™ and all of FIFA’s properties. Licensing revenues for the cycle also came from FIFA’s branded licensees such as Taittinger, Hublot and Louis Vuitton, as well as collectible trading card and sticker licensee Panini. During 2019-2022, FIFA’s four core esports tournament brands, namely the FIFAe Club Series™, the FIFAe Nations Series™, the FIFAe World Cup™ and the FIFAe Continental Cup™, were successfully either launched or relaunched. Another innovation was FIFA+ Collect, a new blockchain-enabled platform allowing fans around the world to own and collect digital FIFA World Cup and FIFA Women’s World Cup™ moments.
Revenue from hospitality rights and ticket sales reached a new high of USD 949 million, of which USD 686 million was generated through the sale of tickets and USD 243 million through the sale of hospitality rights for the FIFA World Cup Qatar. The remainder was delivered by other FIFA tournaments and events at USD 20 million.
Other revenue and income totalled USD 629 million, nearly double the previous cycle amount (USD 323 million). The increase was primarily thanks to an award by the United States Department of Justice as compensation for the losses suffered by FIFA as the victim of decades of football corruption schemes, contributions received for the operational event costs of hosting and staging the FIFA Arab Cup™ and the FIFA World Cup, break fees relating to contract cancellations, and gains from property sales. Of these items, the host-country contribution was the largest source of income, amounting to USD 200 million.
2019-2022 revenue by category (in TUSD)
7,568 0,000
Record full-cycle revenue (in USD million)
96.3 00.0 %
Average stadium occupancy at the FIFA World Cup Qatar™
32 00
Sponsors signed for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™
929 000
Record sales of tickets and hospitality rights for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ (in USD million)
Revenue from the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™
The sale of rights relating to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ made up the majority of FIFA’s revenues (USD 6,314 million or 83%) for all categories. This was a record high and the tournament was the most profitable in FIFA’s history. Of this figure, USD 929 million was generated by FIFA in ticket sales and hospitality rights.
Ticket sales
With 3,182,406 tournament tickets sold, the ticketing programme for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 generated USD 686 million in revenue. The average attendance rate across each of the tournament’s 64 matches was 96.3%, while 88,966 fans packed into a resplendent Lusail Stadium for the final to witness a victorious Argentina team hold aloft the hallowed FIFA World Cup Trophy. In addition, more than 1.8 million fans enjoyed the live broadcasts of the 64 matches and vibrant entertainment at the FIFA Fan Festival™ in Doha’s Al Bidda Park. The top countries in terms of supporters visiting Qatar for the tournament were the USA, Saudi Arabia, the UK, Mexico and the United Arab Emirates.
Thanks to the tournament’s uniquely compact nature and short travel times between all eight state-of-the art stadiums, the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 offered football fans an unprecedented opportunity to attend more than one match per day.
FIFA World Cup Qatar tickets were made as affordable and accessible as possible. Demand from the general public was impressively high, accounting for approximately three quarters of overall ticket sales. In line with FIFA’s ticketing policy for the tournament, Qatar residents had exclusive access to the most affordable category 4 tickets, with prices starting at just QAR 40 each. Disabled people and those with limited mobility were entitled to a dedicated allocation of accessibility tickets.
Hospitality sales
For the FIFA World Cup 2022 hospitality programme in Qatar, six hospitality products were offered, ranging from the convivial and relaxed club to the more luxurious and exclusive Pearl Suite. A total of 259,116 hospitality packages had been sold by the end of the tournament across all hospitality products, of which 39% were purchased by the Qatari host market. Together with Mexico, the USA, Saudi Arabia and Argentina, these were the top five countries worldwide with the highest number of hospitality packages sold. The hospitality programme generated a total of USD 243 million in revenue, USD 95 million (64%) higher than the amount earned from Russia 2018.