Russia is investing 639B rubles ($11.4B) to prepare to host the 2018 World Cup, but if local TV networks cannot "reach a deal for rights, the country’s residents might never see a game," according to Panja & Rudnitsky of BLOOMBERG. Just 14 months ahead of the tournament, FIFA is "still looking for a broadcaster to carry the games in the host country." State-run TV channels have "refused to meet FIFA’s target price" of $120M, more than three times what the country’s TV companies paid to air the previous World Cup. The "standoff" also means the local TV rights for the 2017 Confederations Cup, an eight-team event that starts in three months, have not been sold. Moscow-based sports marketing agency Telesport Head Petr Makarenko said, "If FIFA is waiting for someone from the government to come out with a bag of money and pay them, it might be a while before there’s a deal." FIFA already "rejected a joint bid" from Channel 1, VGTRK and Match TV. A local TV deal is "usually in place years before the tournament." FIFA "needs a network that can promote the games in Russia and provide some of the infrastructure needed to beam the event to billions of fans around the world." Sponsors, local and global, have "also been slow to embrace the Russia World Cup." FIFA signed "just one new top-level partner, China’s Wanda Group, since the previous tournament, and Moscow’s Alfa-Bank is the only regional World Cup sponsor, the lowest category available" (BLOOMBERG, 4/4).
