The global football governing body, FIFA, has initiated an invitation to tender (ITT) for media rights to the men's 2026 and 2030 World Cup tournaments. The ITT is open to media companies in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg.
Media companies interested in participating can request the ITT by emailing netherlands-media-rights@fifa.org for the Netherlands or Belgium-media-rights@fifa.org for Belgium and Luxembourg. The deadline for bid submissions is set at 10 am (CET) on February 20.
World Cup rights are up for grabs for 2026 and 2030
The upcoming tournaments promise exciting developments. The 2026 World Cup will be hosted by Mexico, the US, and Canada with a record of 48 teams participating in a total of 104 matches.
On the other hand, Morocco, Portugal, Spain will primarily host the tournament's edition in 2030. However, Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay are also set to stage three matches as part of a centenary celebration marking one hundred years since the first-ever World Cup took place.
In retrospect to previous editions - Dutch public broadcaster NOS held rights to air men's edition –the Qatar-based-2022 World Cup in Netherlands while public-service broadcasters VRT and RTBF aired it in Belgium and Luxembourg respectively.
During this tournament; however; only Netherlands managed to reach World Cup quarter-finals before being knocked out on penalties by eventual champions Argentina whereas both Belgium finished third failing beyond group stage while Luxembourg did not qualify at all.
FIFA recently invited bids for the French regions, and sub-Saharan
FIFA has been actively launching its ITTs globally recently. Just last week it launched its ITT covering France including Monaco Andorra along with French overseas territories for both upcoming world cups i.e., '26 & '30 editions. Earlier this week, it also opened its tender process for the 2026 World Cup and 2024 Futsal World Cup in five Central Asian countries.
In addition to this, FIFA has also initiated two tender processes in sub-Saharan Africa covering media rights to the 2026 tournament and the 2027 Women’s World Cup matches. It has also launched tenders for South Korea covering both these tournaments along with their subsequent editions in '30 & '31.
Austrian public-service broadcaster ORF recently secured rights to air the 2026 World Cup last November. Similarly, Australian public broadcaster SBS announced that it had retained rights to broadcast the same edition this past October.
This move by FIFA is a significant step towards ensuring widespread coverage of one of the biggest sports events globally, thereby catering effectively not only to sports fans but also sports betting enthusiasts.
