How much money does FIFA make during a world cup?

[LeftFootRightFoot]

Alright, I'll use my (awe-inspiring) math skills and deductive reasoning to give myself a rough estimate. Tickets must be VERY valuable to people across the world, because they actually fly in to see the games. So the prices would be quite high, let's say 200 bucks for a qualifying round game, and that seems low to me somehow. Now, some of the large stadiums can hold 60,000 people. That's 12 million for ONE game! Now, the prices may be higher/lower then I'm guessing (I'm Canadian and know almost nothing about football) and the relative stadium capacity could be off. But do the players get paid out of these massive earnings?

What about the world cup final? Prices must have been ATLEAST 2-3 thousand per ticket.

[xash]

FIFA World Cup ticket prices:

http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/tickets/berlin.html

13-Jun-2006 BRA:CRO 100€ 60€ 45€ 35€
15-Jun-2006 SWE:PAR 100€ 60€ 45€ 35€
20-Jun-2006 ECU:GER 100€ 60€ 45€ 35€
23-Jun-2006 UKR:TUN 100€ 60€ 45€ 35€
30-Jun-2006 Quarter finals 180€ 110€ 85€ 55€
09-Jul-2006 Final 600€ 360€ 220€ 120€
Stadium Capacity: 72,000

[LeftFootRightFoot]

Wow, sports must be in less demand then I thought over there. Up here in Alberta, Canada stanley cup final hockey tickets have been scalped for the thousands for midrange to nosebleeds. I figured since people fly from across the world by the tens of thousands to watch these games they'd fetch more then 35$ a game.

[Szlater]

Wow, sports must be in less demand then I thought over there. Up here in Alberta, Canada stanley cup final hockey tickets have been scalped for the thousands for midrange to nosebleeds. I figured since people fly from across the world by the tens of thousands to watch these games they'd fetch more then 35$ a game.

How would FIFA profit from scalped/touted tickets?

[Charlie Tan]

FIFA makes most profit from television rights:
NEW YORK (AP) - FIFA awarded U.S. television rights to the 2010 and 2014 World Cups on Wednesday for a record $425 million, the largest contract for any single country and a more than 120 percent increase from the previous American deals.
Cite. (http://www.coloradorapids.com/news/newsdetails.asp?ID=1461)
In fact, if the tickets to the stadia are too expensive and FIFA has to televise the events showing empty bleachers (bleechers?), it might harm the interest. The money made from ticket sales is just gravy.

[Chez Guevara]

For the 2006 competition, the short answer to this question is an anticipated $1.4 billion.

Please note that all figures given by this page (http://www.sportcal.com/commerce/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=30) have been converted into US dollars.

The report tells us that marketing revenue is projected at $2.4 billion, television and media rights at $1.5 billion and sponsorship & hospitality at $900 million.

Revenue from ticket sales will account for about $250 million but assessing FIFA's profit from this figure alone doesn't really stack up, because the costs of staging the competition (circa $1.3 billion) would need to be allocated in proportion to all revenue streams. I am not an accountant so I am prepared to be corrected on this point.

It is worth noting that face value ticket prices for World Cup games can be vastly inflated when sold on to the end user, depending on the appeal of the fixture.

Of the top of my head, I know that some England supporters were willing to pay in excess of $1,000 for the England/Portugal fixture, and there are always people (touts and individuals) willing to sell face value tickets for that order of profit.

Of course, FIFA gain nothing from such transactions.

[Chez Guevara]

I seem to have overstated the marketing revenue by a factor of 2 which, together with conversion rounding errors, made something of a nonsense of my calculations. The anticipated profit figure of $1.4 billion was correct but it is arrived at like so:

TV & Media rights ($1.53 billion) + Sponsorship & Hospitality ($0.89 billion) + Ticket Sales ($0.25 billion) gives a revenue of $2.67 billion. Deducting the estimated costs of staging the competition ($1.27 billion) gives a profit of $1.4 billion as previously stated.

I did say I wasn't an accountant.

[Cardinal]

So where does all this money go? Is FIFA a for-profit like MLB, or what?

[LeftFootRightFoot]

Yeah, do the players get paid for however many games they play in?

[Chez Guevara]

I am having difficulty comparing apples with apples (or 2006 with 2002 if you prefer) for the last two questions, but here are some numbers relating to the 2002 competition.

From this site (http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,1590034,00.html):

Fifa does pay the national associations a varying, generally modest amount for taking part - England received £6m for the 2002 World Cup - and the FA pays the England players, on top of their club wages, for commercial appearances for "Team England".
So the players are not paid salaries by the English FA for appearing in the competition but they do receive cash for commercial activities.

I have also read that if England had won the 2006 World Cup they would have received bonuses of up to £300k ($560k US) each. I am also fairly sure that, in spite of their dismal performances in Germany, they will have received some kind of bonus. (Personally this makes me seethe with annoyance).

(I would be surprised if someone does not arrive on this thread with the full figures for 2006. However it can be assumed that the English FA will have received more than £6m ($11.2m US) from FIFA for this year's event. The amounts paid to other national associations may vary.)
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Fifa is a body of 207 member associations around the world, a few from rich but mostly from poor countries, which nevertheless have equal votes. Sepp Blatter, Fifa's president, points to the fact that Fifa's role is to develop the sport with the money it makes, and after costs - which did seem high at Swiss francs 155m (£69m) last year for staff and other running expenses - the rest, Swiss francs 141m (£63m) last year, is distributed to poor national associations and the Goal football development programme.

So FIFA's costs last year were £69m ($129m US). The remainder was distributed to the poorer national associations and its development programme. I realise the numbers don't stack up with the massive profits mentioned previously, but last year was not a World Cup year and I am unaware of FIFA's accounting procedures. Furthermore, the $1.4 billion profit for 2006 will be far higher than any previous years, World Cup or no World Cup.

To sum up, FIFA take a profit, deduct costs and give the rest back to the game.

[Chez Guevara]

I have also read that if England had won the 2006 World Cup.....
I apologise for this comment. I momentarily forgot that General Questions deals with facts, not fantasies.

[scm1001]

I apologise for this comment. I momentarily forgot that General Questions deals with facts, not fantasies.

No but its OK to discuss ancient history.

"I remember in 1966 when Bobby Moore......"