Dazn takes exclusive option on 2029 Club World Cup streaming rights
Saudi-backed streamer that lost $940 million extends Fifa partnership no one else bid for, clubs still await $250 million in unpaid solidarity money
Images
Reece James, watched by Donald Trump, lifts the Club World Cup trophy at MetLife Stadium in July 2025. Photograph: Carl Recine/Fifa/Getty Images
theguardian.com
Dazn has secured an exclusive option on the global streaming rights to the 2029 men's Club World Cup, deepening its partnership with Fifa and extending a deal that no other broadcaster wanted. The Guardian reports that Dazn paid $1 billion for the global rights to the inaugural 32-team tournament in 2025 — a late bid made possible by Saudi Arabia's Surj Sports Investment purchasing a 10 percent stake in the company, after Apple TV withdrew over a valuation dispute and Fifa's attempt to sell the rights regionally collapsed.
The 2025 payment effectively bankrolled Fifa's $1 billion prize fund for the tournament, which Chelsea won in July 2025, collecting roughly $114 million watched by Donald Trump at MetLife Stadium. Dazn, which has more than 300 million subscribers, has never turned a profit: its 2025 accounts show operating losses widened from $772.9 million to $939.8 million over the previous twelve months. The company appears content to keep buying sports rights regardless. The value of the 2029 option, and the deadline for triggering it, are unknown.
The 2029 tournament itself exists mostly on paper. No decisions have been made on venues, format or size, despite longstanding discussions about expanding to 48 teams. Progress has been a casualty of the fallout from Gianni Infantino's aborted plan to sell off parts of Fifa's commercial future: the lobby group European Football Clubs threatened to withdraw support, and in a letter obtained by the Guardian expressed "serious disappointment" that $250 million in solidarity payments owed to clubs from 2025 remained unpaid more than a year after the first tournament concluded. A proposed joint venture to manage the Club World Cup's commercial operations may be shelved until after the Fifa presidential election in March — an election Infantino is expected to contest, with Morocco the favourite to host 2029 given his relationship with King Mohammed VI.
A loss-making streamer backed by Saudi capital has thus become the sole guaranteed buyer of a tournament that Fifa cannot yet describe in size, venue or format. The clubs are still waiting for last year's money.