FIFA Reports Smaller-Than-Expected Net Loss Of $191.5M For '17

FIFA reported a net loss of $191.5M for '17, the third year in the four-year cycle that will culminate with this summer's World Cup, according to David Owen of INSIDE WORLD FOOTBALL. It could have been a "great deal worse." A detailed budget for '17 included in last year’s financial report "had totted up to a loss" of $489M before tax and "financial outturns." As "it was," a revenue windfall relating to licensing rights, "coupled with a multiplicity of small factors on the cost side," combined to produce a "smaller deficit than had been anticipated." Revenue from licensing rights "has already comfortably exceeded budget for the World Cup cycle with a year to go." This contrasts with the "main revenue streams -- TV and marketing rights." So far, only 19% and 36% of their respective budgets for the full cycle "have actually been counted in revenues over the past three years." FIFA said, however, that 98% of targeted overall revenue for '15-18 "had been contracted by the balance-sheet date" (INSIDE WORLD FOOTBALL, 3/18).