Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), the country’s sovereign wealth investment vehicle, has partnered with global soccer governing body FIFA in advance of the upcoming FIFA Club World Cup (CWC) 2025.
The PIF will serve as an official partner of the upcoming men's CWC, which will take place in the US between June 14 and July 13 and will feature 32 teams.
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This partnership will be focused on growing grassroots engagement in soccer globally – FIFA has claimed – with the PIF to support FIFA initiatives in doing so.
Al-Hilal, the record Saudi Pro League champions and winner of the AFC Asian Champions League in 2021, will be the country’s sole representative at the CWC.
This tie-up marks the latest in a series of moves by Saudi Arabia to commercially intertwine itself with FIFA, after the country bid for the hosting rights to the 2034 World Cup back in October 2023 (and was confirmed in that position in December 2024).
Ever since the Kingdom (which has never put on the event before) was awarded preferred bidder status by FIFA in 2023 – and arguably from well before that – the 2034 edition of national team soccer’s most iconic tournament was only ever going to take place in one location.
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By GlobalDataFIFA’s bidding criteria had ensured that only the number of countries who could apply for hosting rights was limited, due to other continents staging the next three editions (North America in 2026; Africa, Europe, and South America in 2030).
Saudi Arabia was the only nation to bid for 2034 World Cup hosting rights – submissions were briefly considered by Australia and Indonesia, but those nations quickly backed out once it became clear which way the wind was blowing.
In April 2024, meanwhile, Saudi’s state-owned oil company Aramco partnered with FIFA to cover the 2026 men’s and 2027 women’s World Cups.
Following that, the global media rights to the Club World Cup were bought by streaming service DAZN in December for a reported fee of $1 billion, after which the PIF’s SURJ Sports Investment arm purchased a stake in the OTT streaming service, also for $1 billion.
Securing World Cup hosting rights is a major element of Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman’s efforts to project Saudi Arabia to the world as a more diverse and modern country, in terms of its economy, culture, and also socially, with the PIF as a prominent vehicle to do so.
The country has been working on improving its own soccer leagues and facilities in recent years, and in terms of attracting other major events from that sport, it will also host the Asian Football Confederation’s 2027 Asia Cup.
Meanwhile, FIFA has also appointed Cromotransfer as an official licensee for the 2025 CWC’s tournament badge.
FIFA has never before commercialized the badges, which will be available for purchase in physical and online shops for all 32 participating clubs.
Other prominent sponsors of the upcoming CWC include credit card giant Visa, Bank of America, Coca-Cola, AB InBev, and Hisense.
Up until the Hisense tie-up (also an expansion of an existing arrangement) was unveiled in late October, FIFA had no sponsors (or indeed broadcast partners) on board for the CWC, which has proved extremely controversial with many of soccer’s major stakeholders.
FIFA had been in legal dispute with two of its partners, Adidas and Coca-Cola, over the sponsorship rights to the tournament.
