FIFA needs income to finance the promised prize money to the clubs. Now FIFA’s Saudi Arabia will help FIFA and becomes sponsor of the club World Cup.
The sovereign fund becomes an important part in financing the tournament. “Together we look forward to organizing a historical tournament that inspires and unites fans around the world”the FIFA announced on Thursday (June 5th, 2025).
Saudi Arabia, which in December 2024, was even more involved in solving an economic problem of FIFA in a procurement procedure, which was criticized by FIFA in a procurement procedure that was criticized by FIFA in December 2024.
Money from Saudi Arabia also flows into the Bundesliga
FIFA President Gianni Infantino has promised the participating clubs like Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund a total of one billion US dollar. Another billion is required to finance the costs of the tournament and so -called solidarity payments to non -participating clubs. At the same time, he agreed not to hire FIFA’s reserves.
But the marketing of the tournament stalled in many places. The sale of sponsoring packages was slow, tickets are still available for all games. The media rights of the new tournament with 32 teams remained a shop keeper for a long time until she bought it for a billion $ 1 billion.
Shortly thereafter, Saudi Arabia’s state fund reported an entry of 10 percent at DAZN in the amount of just one billion US dollars. Shortly before, Saudi Arabia had received the certificate with the host role for the 2034 World Cup – with the consent of the DFB.
Football gets a lot of money from Saudi Arabia
The influence of Saudi Arabia on FIFA and world football continues to grow. A research by the initiative “Play the game“From Denmark in December 2024, 194 Sponsoring transactions of Saudi Arabia found in football. The two largest donors are the PIF and Aramco funds.
The state energy group Aramco is the most valuable company in the world and already a general large sponsor of FIFA. Most recently, several state-owned companies of Saudi Arabia also performed as sponsors of the North American Association Concacaf or the associations from Asia and Africa.
In Europe, Saudi Arabia is currently particularly active in sponsoring clubs. When asked about sponsorship in UEFA, Uefa President Aleksander Ceferer told the British broadcaster Sky: “Every sponsoring is welcome. I personally would be very happy if we got more sponsors and even bigger contracts.”