The 2026 Fifa World Cup winner may not be decided on the pitch for some time, but financially the contest already has a front-runner. Fifa, according to Deutsche Bank Research senior strategist Marion Laboure, is “without question” the main winner as the tournament’s four-year-cycle revenues approach $13bn.
That is the bigger story behind the next World Cup in the US, Canada and Mexico. Qatar 2022 generated a record $7.6bn for Fifa, and the 2026 edition is expected to push the governing body even further, helped by a larger field of 48 teams and the commercial reach of a tournament spread across three countries. Fifa is even considering expanding again to 64 teams.
The numbers matter because they show how far the World Cup’s economics have moved beyond the old idea of a single host country simply staging football’s biggest event. The event now sits inside a larger business model built on tickets, travel, food and accommodation, and those are the costs fans are absorbing. In other words, the commercial upside is being paired with a much steeper bill for supporters.
Some of that tension was already visible around the final at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. Tickets for the final reached $32,970 in the top category, while another entry point was $2m, and the lower-end options still sat at $1,000. Even the surrounding logistics looked costly, with food priced around $12.90 and one note on transit pointing to a 30-minute journey on New Jersey Transit.
The Business Model Keeps Expanding
Gianni Infantino has said the tournament remains “in line with other US sporting events,” but the scale is still striking when viewed against the wider football landscape. Fifa’s revenue stream does not come from one source alone; it is built from the combined pull of broadcasting, sponsorship, ticketing and the event itself. That is why the World Cup has become so central to the organization’s financial power.
Donald Trump, meanwhile, offered a different kind of comment, saying he “wouldn’t pay.” However the politics are framed, the underlying reality is that this World Cup has become an enormous commercial asset. That is good news for Fifa, and far less comfortable for the fans being asked to fund the spectacle around it.
So if the question is who benefits most from the 2026 Fifa World Cup, the answer is not really in doubt. The teams will compete for the trophy, but Fifa is the one that appears set to win the economic prize, with revenue moving toward $13bn and the event’s scale still expanding.
