Doha: FIFA will earn up $700m more from the Qatar World Cup than it did four years ago despite relentless criticism in the build-up to the tournament, president Gianni Infantino said on Saturday.
Infantino said media rights were up about $200m compared with the 2018 tournament in Russia, sponsorship was $200 million extra and tickets and hospitality would bring in $200 to $300m more.
“All in all, this World Cup will generate for FIFA around $600-$700m more than the last World Cup,” he said ahead of Sunday’s opening match between Qatar and Ecuador.
Infantino said he would reveal FIFA’s global revenues for the past four years to national associations on Sunday.
But he insisted the Qatar tournament - which has faced criticism over rights issues and its climate - had defied doubters.
“I was told that sponsors will jump from FIFA, people will switch off their TV, they will not watch the World Cup because of the scandal, nobody will come to Qatar anyway because it is winter,” he said.
Hailing a ‘commercial success’, Infantino said, “If so many people around the world have invested so much money in the World Cup in Qatar, they invest because they believe in FIFA” and “trust” Qatar.
“Either those people are stupid, or somebody, those who say nobody will watch it, that nobody cares about this World Cup, might be little bit wrong as some of the polls in some countries were wrong as well,” he said.
Source: AFP
