FIFA, the global governing body for soccer, has initiated media rights tenders for the next three World Cups – two men's and one women's – in Laos, Malaysia, and Thailand. The tenders cover the 2026 (Mexico, United States, Canada), 2027 (Brazil), and 2030 (Spain, Morocco, Portugal) World Cups.
The tender process went live recently with a deadline set for April 1 at 10am CET. Interested parties can access invitation to tender documents through designated contact points: laos-media-rights@fifa.org; malaysia-media-rights@fifa.org; thailand-media-rights@fifa.org. The upcoming events are expected to be grander than ever before. The 2026 event will see a record-breaking participation of at least eight teams from Asia among a total of 48 teams playing across 104 World Cup matches.
For the first time ever in FIFA history - Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay will host one game each during the predominantly Spain-Morocco-Portugal hosted tournament in order to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the inaugural World Cup held in Uruguay.
Previous rights holders & new opportunities
In previous years' tournaments like that of Qatar's Men’s World Cup or Australia-New Zealand Women’s World Cup none of these three countries managed to qualify. However Thailand did make it to France's Women’s world cup held back in year 2019. Thailand had an array of free-to-air partners covering its broadcast rights following an overall deal between FIFA and Sports Authority of Thailand after significant dispute over rights issue.
However due to recent changes made last April reversing a rule brought about back in year 2013 which mandated that FIFA world cup must be shown free, pay-TV networks will now be able to participate in the tender process. In Malaysia, the 2022 tournament was broadcasted live by pay-TV giant Astro with 41 out of 64 games also covered by free-to-air network RTM.
FIFA has been expanding its media rights processes. In mid-February, it took these processes to nine European markets including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia and others. A tender covering the 2026 and 2027 tournaments went live in Hong Kong in mid-January.
Exciting developments for fans
For fans looking forward to the World Cup final on July 19th, 2026 there is an exciting development. For the first time ever at a World Cup event there will be a half-time show similar to American football’s iconic Super Bowl finale. The game will take place at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey (to be known as New York New Jersey Stadium throughout the World Cup), with that venue confirmed as host last year.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino has announced that this halftime show will feature performances from a list of artists yet to be disclosed. The duration of this half-time show is still under wraps but if it follows suit with Super Bowl's format then we can expect up-to-30 minutes long performance which would extend soccer’s usual break time from its standard fifteen minutes.
FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, said:
“This will be a historic moment for the FIFA World Cup and a show befitting the biggest sporting event in the world.”
This move seems like FIFA is following UEFA Champions League's footsteps where high-profile soccer games have become commonplace for hosting halftime shows during their finals. With such exciting developments and changes coming up - sports fans and sports betting enthusiasts have much to look forward to in upcoming FIFA world cup events!
