FIFA: Secret 2026 TV Rights Deal With Fox Opens 'Legal Minefield'

FIFA's "secret deal" to hand the U.S. TV rights for the 2026 World Cup to Fox without a tender process is "expected to come under scrutiny, leaving football’s world governing body open to compensation claims over the awarding of the 2022 World Cup," according to Nick Harris of the London DAILY MAIL. FIFA has not "responded to questions about how many other similar secret payments they have made, or on other covert deals kept from the public." But FIFA Secretary General Jérôme Valcke admitted in February that Fox and the Spanish-language platform Telemundo had "been awarded the 2026 World Cup rights 'in order to protect FIFA' from a legal threat over the moving of the 2022 World Cup from summer to winter." Valcke: "We have done what we had to do in order to protect FIFA and the organization of the World Cup." Fox and Telemundo agreed to pay almost $1B for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups on the basis that it "would be played in the summer." Fox was "outraged at the prospect of a winter 2022 World Cup" (DAILY MAIL, 6/6).