Qatar Airways has extended its sponsorship of the FIFA World Cup series for the next seven years, covering tournaments that will be played across North America, as well as Europe, Africa and South America.
One of the title sponsors of the controversial 2022 FIFA World Cup, which was held in Doha, Qatar Airways, will go on to sponsor the 2026 and 2030 men’s World Cups, as well as the 2027 women’s World Cup and the FIFA U-17 World Cup which will take place in Indonesia.
Neither Qatar Airways nor FIFA would say how much the airline had spent to secure the rights as a key World Cup sponsor, although the deal is believed to be in the tens of millions of dollars.
Qatar Airways has had a partnership with FIFA since 2017, although in the last few years, the government-owned carrier has stepped up its efforts to bolster its portfolio of sports sponsorship deals.
Earlier this year, Qatar Airways clinched the global rights to Formula 1 through 2027 as part of an estimated $50 million deal. The airline is understood to have offered to pay double the amount that Emirates had been paying the owners of F1 to snatch the sponsorship rights from its regional rival.
Unfortunately for Qatar Airways, however, not all of is partnerships have been as successful as the airline would no doubt have hoped they would. In June, Qatar Airways and FC Bayern Munich said they had “mutually agreed” to end a multi-million-euro sponsorship deal.
The decision followed high-profile fan protests over alleged Qatari human rights abuses.
