FIFA, the global governing body for soccer, has initiated a media rights tender that encompasses the next two men's FIFA World Cup tournaments across nine European markets. These countries were all part of the 2022 coverage deal that FIFA struck with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).
The media rights cover the 2026 tournament to be held in the US, Canada, and Mexico, as well as the 2030 tournament set to take place in Spain, Portugal, and Morocco. The tender extends across Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, Iceland Latvia Lithuania Malta and Ukraine. Bids are open until March 25 at 11 am Central European Time.
The upcoming events promise to be exciting with record participation expected. The 2026 event will feature a record-breaking number of teams - 48 in total- including an unprecedented representation from Europe with 16 teams participating and for the first time ever there will be a total of 104 matches played.
Hosting details for future tournaments
While Spain Portugal and Morocco will host most games during the 2030 World Cup Argentina Uruguay and Paraguay are also set to host one game each marking 100 years since Uruguay hosted inaugural World Cup.
Interestingly none of these nine countries managed to qualify for either Qatar's 2022 or Russia's 2018 editions of World Cup.
Past broadcast deals
In terms of previous broadcast deals covering these territories during Qatar’s tournament all were covered through a significant partnership between FIFA and EBU which covers 37 territories overall. This meant that major public-service broadcasters showed most parts of Qatar’s tournament across these nine countries. Notably Megogo was one specific partner outside this tie-up broadcasting in Ukraine.
This follows on from the previous tender covering FIFA World Cup broadcast rights which went live in Hong Kong in mid-January with a submission deadline of February 25. That process covers rights for the 2026 tournament as well as the 2027 Women’s World Cup in Brazil. A Spanish process for the 2026 and 2030 tournaments was also launched earlier this year, with that tender closing yesterday.
This new media rights tender from FIFA opens up exciting opportunities for broadcasters across these nine European markets. It will be interesting to see who secures these coveted broadcasting slots, and how they plan to bring these global sporting events to their audiences.
