Soccer teams will profit handsomely from their players’ presence in November’s World Cup.

FIFA announced it would pay out $209 million in total to clubs over the course of the World Cup. Teams will receive $10,000 per player per day while the player is involved in the Qatar-based tournament.

• The payments will go to all clubs the player has played for in the two-year period prior to the World Cup.
• FIFA gave out $8,530 per player per day in the 2018 World Cup, on top of $10 million to each country whose team made the group stage.
• The 2018 payments went to more than 400 clubs across 63 countries. 

Manchester City earned $5 million from its players’ participation in the 2018 tournament in Russia. The Premier League team will have 17 players in Qatar. Chelsea will have 20.

Going Meta

In addition to the physical world, FIFA is growing its presence in the metaverse.

Soccer’s global governing body agreed to a multiyear deal with metaverse and gaming platform Roblox, which claims 50 million members.

FIFA will launch an immersive gaming environment within Roblox ahead of the World Cup, including content from its FIFA+ streaming service.

In the middle of negotiations for its next media rights package, the Pac-12 Network has filed a lawsuit against Dish Network.

• The complaint alleges Dish Network “erroneously claims” that the Pac-12 Network owes refunds for the 2018 and 2019 seasons.
• As a result, Dish Network has begun “withholding” licensing fees — an alleged breach of contract.
• It’s unclear how much Dish Network is withholding, as certain parts of the lawsuit documents were redacted.

The Pac-12 Network acknowledged that it paid Dish Network a rebate for the 2020 season, which was curtailed due to the pandemic.

The Pac-12 Conference declined to comment on the lawsuit. Dish Network did not respond to a request for comment.

Media Rights Blitz

While the Pac-12 and Dish Network battle in court, the conference office is negotiating what it hopes will be a media rights package lucrative enough to keep members from defecting — and potentially attract new members.

Following news that USC and UCLA would join the Big Ten, Pac-12 schools authorized commissioner George Kliavkoff to begin negotiating a new media deal earlier than planned — a push which hasn’t been successful so far. 

The Pac-12 reportedly asked for “hundreds of millions” more than ESPN was willing to pay. Last week, the exclusive negotiating window with ESPN and FOX passed without a deal.

It’s looking more and more likely that Manchester United will remain under the Glazer family’s ownership.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe was reportedly interested in taking over the club, but after he met with the family, it appears that a takeover won’t be happening anytime soon.

“It is owned by the six children of the father, and they don’t want to sell it,” Ratcliffe said on Tuesday.

The late Malcolm Glazer bought his first shares in the club in 2003. Two years later, he took over nearly 100% of the team — ultimately spending more than $1.4 billion.

“If it had been for sale in the summer, yes, we would probably have had a go following on from the Chelsea thing, but we can’t sit around hoping that one day Manchester United will become available,” Ratcliffe said.

• Ratcliffe was also leading a group bidding for Chelsea FC.
• The team ended up going to Los Angeles Lakers, Sparks, and Dodgers owner Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital for $5.2 billion.

In May, Forbes valued Man United at $4.6 billion.

Soccer Solution

Even with Chelsea FC and Man United out of the question, Ratcliffe — who owns Ineos, the owner of Swiss club Lausanne and France’s Nice — isn’t giving up on finding another team.

“The most popular sport in the world is football, and it is the sport closest to us, so we should have an asset … not a Premiership (club), I think a premier club.”

Four Nordic countries plan to submit a joint bid to host the 2025 UEFA Women’s European Championship, which exploded in popularity in 2022 behind record viewership and attendance. 

“All Nordic football associations agree about the importance of organizing major championships,” said Norwegian Football Federation president Lise Klaveness. “Together we have great ambitions for the development of women’s football.” 

• The group consists of Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden.
• The bid is supported by two other Nordic territories: the Faroe Islands and Iceland.
• Bidding closes on Oct. 12, with a final decision on Jan. 25.
• France, Poland, and Switzerland have also submitted bids. 

The 2022 Women’s Euro — hosted by England for the first time since 2005 — returned after a one-year pandemic-related delay and averaged 18,544 fans per contest, its best attendance to date.

The tournament saw 87,192 fans attend its final match between England and Germany — a record for any men’s or women’s European national team tournament game. 

England’s 2-1 victory over Germany was also the most-watched women’s soccer match ever in the U.K. with a peak audience of 17.4 million on the BBC and 5.9 million streams on digital platforms. The previous record was 11.7 million viewers for the 2019 World Cup semifinal.

Valuable Bid 

In the next 10 years, European women’s soccer could reach roughly $698 million in annual commercial value — six times its current value, according to a UEFA report.

UEFA also projects there could be 328 million women’s soccer fans worldwide by 2033.