Club World Cup 2025: DAZN secures global broadcast rights
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British streaming service DAZN has been awarded the exclusive global rights to broadcast next year's expanded 32-team Club World Cup in the United States, FIFA announced Wednesday.
"The landmark agreement will see all 63 matches... live-streamed, free to view on DAZN worldwide, with the possibility of sublicensing to local free-to-air linear broadcast networks," read a statement from FIFA.
A source close to the negotiations told AFP the contract was worth around one billion euros ($1.05 billion).
The announcement came on the eve of Thursday's tournament draw which is set to take place in Miami.
DAZN chief executive officer Shay Segev called the deal "groundbreaking".
The tournament will see some of the world's best club teams battle it out in what is effectively a curtain-raiser for the 2026 World Cup taking place a year later in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Yet for many, FIFA president Gianni Infantino's passion project is a tournament too far, an unwelcome addition to an already crowded global calendar that exhausted players say has pushed them close to breaking point.
Javier Tebas, the chief of Spain's La Liga, has been one of the Club World Cup's most outspoken critics, telling Infantino in October to cancel the tournament, citing apathy from broadcasters and opposition from clubs.