IMG has held these rights for the last 15 years through its Sport 24 service. (FIFA imagery)

FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, has launched the tender process for worldwide in-ship and in-flight media rights to its World Cups across 2026 (men’s) and 2027 (women’s).

Entities interested in participating can receive the invitation to tender documents by emailing inflightinship@fifa.org, while the deadline for bid submissions is 12pm Central European Time on July 2.

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The 2026 World Cup is set to take place across Mexico, Canada, and the US, while the women’s edition the following year will be held in Brazil (voted in at the FIFA Congress in mid-May).

IMG, the sports and entertainment agency, has held rights for the last 15 years, having first struck a deal with Fifa in late 2009 to act as the exclusive distributor of in-flight and ship-at-sea rights for the 2010 World Cup and then renewing the deal regularly since.

IMG distributes this content through its specific in-flight and in-ship channel, Sport 24, which is available on multiple top-tier cruise companies and airlines worldwide.

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The last renewal between FIFA and IMG came in March last year, covering the 2023 Women's World Cup across Australia and New Zealand. Sport 24 also covered the men’s tournament in Qatar.

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In late April, IMG and Sport 24 announced a tie-up with European soccer’s governing body UEFA, covering the men’s 2024 European Championship national team tournament.

Through the deal, Sport 24 – as well as its additional Sport 24 Extra channel – will show 50-plus matches from the 24-team tournament, which will be held in Germany between June 14 and July 14 this year.

In terms of other sports, meanwhile, Sport 24 also covers motor racing’s Formula 1, ice hockey’s NHL, and UK tennis’ Wimbledon, amongst other properties.

FIFA has recently conducted a tender process covering media rights in eight Balkan markets to its next two men’s FIFA World Cups.

Processes took place covering TV rights for those national team tournaments in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia, with a deadline of June 4 for bids.

This followed on from similar tenders in Indonesia and the UK.