Global soccer’s governing body FIFA is close to striking a worldwide media rights deal with technology and content giant Apple, it has been reported.
The deal would be for TV rights covering the new and enlarged edition of the FIFA Club World Cup (CWC) competition, debuting in the US in mid-2025, the New York Times has reported.
The publication has said that a deal could be unveiled as soon as the end of April and has cited three sources familiar with the matter.
The NYT has suggested that the deal could potentially be worth $1 billion in value - around 25% of what FIFA had originally estimated media rights for the tournament would be worth.
FIFA has never signed off on a global media rights deal for any of its tournaments and properties before.
The tournament is scheduled to act as a build-up event before the FIFA World Cup, set to be held in the US, Canada, and Mexico, in mid-2026.
The 2025 FIFA CWC is set to be the first to include 32 teams - up from eight currently - through a new format in which FIFA’s continental governing bodies will all - apart from the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) - receive multiple team slots.
Europe’s UEFA, with 12, will have the most teams involved. The line-up was completed last week following the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League and will involve Chelsea, Real Madrid, Manchester City, Bayern Munich, PSG, Inter Milan, Porto, Benfica, Borussia Dortmund, Juventus, Atletico Madrid, and Red Bull Salzburg.
The tournament will be contested every four years, with FIFA now reportedly being pressed for final details on its precise scheduling by the various clubs set to be involved.
In terms of Apple’s current soccer rights portfolio, it holds worldwide rights to the North American Major League Soccer competition through a decade-long tie-up struck in mid-2022 and worth $2.5 billion overall.
It is persistently linked with domestic rights to European soccer’s top leagues, whenever these come up for tender, but has yet to make a serious play in that market for soccer.
