FIFA’s $15 billion World Cup payday shows commercialization is the real tournament champion

The 2026 World Cup concluded Sunday as FIFA’s most financially successful tournament ever—even after months of warnings that exorbitant ticket prices and U.S. travel restrictions would hold the event back.

Along with the usual glory and heartbreak on the pitch, this year, the world’s biggest sporting event also came with an unprecedented windfall, according to FIFA.

About a year ago, FIFA projected roughly $8.9 billion in total revenue for 2026. By April, it said the World Cup itself would generate around $11 billion, before Infantino said over the weekend that revenue for the the full 2023–2026 commercial cycle would surpass $15 billion.

On Saturday, Infantino told representatives of FIFA’s member associations that ahead of the next World Cup in 2030, the organization can do even better.

“I think I can say that this FIFA World Cup here in particular has opened a lot of doors, a lot of opportunities, a lot of possibilities,” he said.

Partly fueling the massive pay day was the tournament’s expanded format, with 48 teams playing, up from 32. That meant just under a quarter of the world’s FIFA-affiliated national teams got a chance to participate, while the number of matches increased from 64 to 104.

While some worried the format would take........

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