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DAZN, the sports streaming group backed by billionaire Sir Leonard Blavatnik, has agreed a $1bn deal with Fifa to show the new Club World Cup next year.
The UK-based broadcaster has paid for the exclusive global rights to the inaugural month-long 32-club tournament, which will include some of the world’s leading teams such as Manchester City, Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain.
The deal also includes rights to show other Fifa content, as well as the Fifa+ streaming service, as part of a wider partnership.
The competition is the latest attempt by Fifa to muscle in on the vast club TV revenues generated by Uefa, the European federation that operates the Champions League. The tournament will be hosted in cities across the US, with 63 matches being played between 32 clubs.
Unusually for DAZN — which operates a paid subscription platform that shows sports such as boxing, NFL, football and tennis — the tournament will be shown for free.
The broadcaster will instead rely on advertising and sponsorship to generate income, and will hope to turn the free viewers into paying subscribers.
DAZN, which is funded by Blavatnik, the Ukraine-born billionaire, paid about $1bn in total for the rights to show the games as well as the partnership over its broader content.
Fifa had been in talks with broadcasters over a deal this year, although a deal with Apple TV was reported to have fallen through. The DAZN agreement is only for one year but includes the first option for the follow-up competition planned for 2026.
Football is already DAZN’s most-watched sport. The service shows matches from leagues such as La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, J League, Ligue 1 and the Champions League.
DAZN sees the tournament as providing out-of-season content and so helping to reduce customer churn during the fallow months of the summer.
The deal between DAZN and Fifa is separate to any moves to raise new funds for the broadcaster, according to a person close to the situation.
DAZN has been repeatedly linked with talks to sell a $1bn stake to Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which released a statement in October that “PIF is not currently engaged in discussions with DAZN on this matter and has no current plans to invest in the company”.
The tournament kicks off on June 15 2025 at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, with the final at MetLife Stadium in New York.
