The World Cup is approaching. India still doesn’t know where to watch it
With no hope of watching India play in the FIFA World Cup, that dream sits somewhere apart.
India’s hope to enjoy the FIFA World Cup.
The FIFA World Cup turns parts of India into little pockets of the soccer world for a month. The streets are filled with flags, jerseys for the office after a messed up sleep schedule, everything is self-evident.
Even your uncle, who hasn’t watched a minute of club football all year, suddenly becomes an expert on tactics. He won’t know who’s on top of La Liga, but he’ll definitely ask about Argentina’s score, stay up until 3am for the knockout game and debate Messi vs. Ronaldo over morning chai.
In a cricket-obsessed country, the FIFA World Cup is a reminder that India may not be part of the tournament, but they absolutely belong in the audience.
That is why the uncertainty surrounding the broadcasting rights for the 2026 FIFA World Cup is so bizarre.
And offensive to many fans.
Not that Indian fans really believed they would be without a transmitter once the tournament starts on June 11. Most of them understand that an agreement will eventually be reached. In fact, reports suggest that Zee is now closing in on a deal worth around USD 30-35 million, with an announcement likely to arrive within days.
The frustration comes from something deeper.
Football fans can see where this story is going.
They know this whole chapter will leave a mark. They’ve seen it all before.
Almost everyone started predicting the consequences after this World Cup.
And again, the people who wait are the fans.
WHAT THE WORLD CUP MEANS FOR INDIA
Football fandom in India has always been a fascinating contrast.
The country has never played in the FIFA World Cup. The domestic ecosystem remains terribly fragile and the national team sits miles away from football’s biggest stage.
Yet every four years, India behaves like a country that belongs in the tournament.
Calcutta is perhaps the most famous example. During the World Cup season, the city turns into a football carnival. Entire neighborhoods split into Argentina and Brazil camps. Giant cutouts of Messi, Neymar and Cristiano Ronaldo appear on the roadsides. Local club rivalries are temporarily suspended as supporters rally behind the admitted international teams.
Then down in Mallapuram, where Argentine banners already line the roads. Kerala have been passionate supporters of South American nations such as Brazil and Argentina. (Image: X/@mohanstatsman)
All these examples are also the reasons why the current situation is so strange.
Because while fans prepare for the biggest World Cup in history, the business side of football has been arguing for months about who gets to show it off.
THE NUMBERS THAT STARTED THE WAR
The story becomes much more frustrating the moment you follow the money.
What was supposed to be normal corporate paperwork slowly turned into a massive, very public game of boardroom chicken. The mess has left one of FIFA’s most obsessed markets completely stranded without a confirmed broadcaster just days before the opening match.
To understand how we got here:
FIFA initially requested nearly US$100 million for a package for India covering the 2026 and 2030 World Cups
The valuation later dropped to around US$35 million
A reported USD 20 million offer from JioStar was rejected
Sony explored the rights but never made a formal offer
Only 14 of them 104 matches of the tournament in India it will start before midnight
The final itself is scheduled for 12:30 PM IST
The tournament features a record 48 teams and 104 matches
India accounted for 2.9 percent of FIFA’s global reach during the 2022 World Cup India accounts for 2.9 percent of FIFA’s global audience. (Image: Reuters)
More than 110 million digital viewers reportedly watched Qatar 2022 from India
The irony cannot be ignored.
The World Cup is getting bigger and bigger. More teams. More matches. More stories. More content.
Yet finding a broadcaster in the world’s most populous country has become one of FIFA’s biggest commercial pain points.
Much of the debate has centered on timing. Broadcasters believe that midnight and early morning kick-offs significantly reduce the commercial appeal of the tournament.
But is that entirely fair?
Soccer fans would argue that the World Cup has always been run differently than regular sporting events. The FIFA World Cup is not just another soccer tournament squeezed into a crowded calendar. It is a worldwide phenomenon. An event in which even casual fans suddenly become emotionally involved.
After all, if popularity was only determined by timing, generations of Indian football fans would never have stayed up until three in the morning to watch Messi, Ronaldo, Zidane, Ronaldinho or Mbappe.
That doesn’t mean the broadcasters are wrong.
It simply means that the answer is more complicated.
WHY BROADCASTERS AREN’T TOTALLY WRONG
Now to where football emotions collide with media economics.
Or simply put, where heart meets logic.
Exclusive to India Today, Rajesh Sethi, Partner and Head of Media, Entertainment and Sports at India Today believes that the issue has been misunderstood from the beginning.
“The delay cannot be attributed to a glitch in negotiations, but rather a direct commercial issue,” Sethi explained.
Let’s break it down.
Midnight kick-offs mean lower ad revenue. The late deal leaves broadcasters with almost no time to sell sponsorship packages. The consolidation of India’s media landscape means that there are fewer bidders competing with each other. Nightly news is one of the main problems for advertisers. (Image: Reuters)
As Sethi bluntly puts it, “Indian broadcasters are legitimately unwilling to base their payments solely on population optics.”
Simply put, the population of India can be huge.
But advertisers pay for viewers, not census data.
Sethi also points to a deeper problem that football administrators may not like to hear.
“The basic uncomfortable truth is that cricket has achieved commercial dominance because broadcasters, sponsors and administrators have collectively invested decades in building its ecosystem,” he told India Today.
“In contrast, global football organizations approach India as a market for exploitation rather than development.”
This observation perhaps explains why broadcasters are increasingly cautious.
The era of throwing money at every major non-cricket property simply because it’s prestigious seems to be coming to an end.
CAN FIFA AFFORD TO IGNORE INDIA?
The problem with the broadcaster’s argument is that it only tells half the story.
Aahna Mehrotra, founder of AM Sports Law & Management Co., believes that India remains too important to be overlooked by FIFA.
Speaking exclusively to India Today, Mehrotra pointed to India’s growing football footprint and asked if any global sports organization could afford to let go of a market of this size.
“I mean, no one is going to sacrifice the most populous country in the world, which is the second largest mobile phone market, where mobile data is available at one of the cheapest prices in the world,” she said.
And he’s right.
India contributed around 2.9 percent of FIFA’s global reach during the 2022 FIFA World Cup despite not having a team in the tournament. More than 110 million digital viewers reportedly watched Qatar 2022 from India.
European leagues already recognize this opportunity. The The Premier League is aggressively marketed here. La Liga has established an Indian office. The trophy tour is commonly visited by Indian cities. Even rumors of Messi visiting India are generating national headlines.
“For FIFA, it has to have weak interest from TV stations in India, which could hurt both its revenue and its long-term ambitions in terms of football growth,” Mehrotra added.
This makes the current situation uncomfortable even for FIFA.
Because while India may contribute more in reach than revenue today, it represents potential that few global sports organizations can afford to miss.
WHAT HAS CHANGED SINCE QATAR 2022?
Perhaps the most important question is not why the deal was delayed. That’s why it never happened four years ago. The answer lies in India’s changing media landscape.
The previous World Cup had some serious contenders. Sony aired two editions. Viacom18 paid heavily for Qatar 2022. Competition drove prices up.
The merger of Reliance and Disney has created a very different environment today. JioStar has a huge impact. Sony stayed away. Zee returned to sports broadcasting only recently with the launch of its Unite8 Sports channels.
As Mehrotra explained to India Today, FIFA was essentially negotiating with buyers who no longer felt the pressure to overpay.
“The broadcast landscape has been fundamentally restructured,” she said. As a result, FIFA found itself negotiating a market where broadcasters had more influence than ever before.
And maybe that’s the real reason why this whole saga has dragged on for so long.
INDIA’S WORLD CUP CAN BE SAFE
The good news is that fans will almost certainly get their World Cup.
Reports suggest Zee is close to securing the rightswith multilingual coverage planned across its sports channels and Zee5. Sources suggest that the teams have already started preparations from the television studios in Mumbai.
If the deal goes through, all 104 matches of the tournament will be available in India.
But here’s the catch. This whole episode set the bar. If FIFA eventually settles closer to US$30 million than US$100 million, future football rights negotiations in India will inevitably start from that reference point.
As Mehrotra notes, it could become the new football anchor in India. The consequences can go beyond a single World Cup.
Other football properties could face tougher negotiations. Global federations may need to reassess their expectations. Broadcasters may increasingly demand revenue-sharing or co-investment models instead of paying large guarantees upfront. The irony, of course, is that none of the people arguing over millions of dollars are the ones waking up at 3am to watch Argentina, Brazil or France.
The fans are. They always are. And somehow, they are usually the ones who end up paying the price.
– The end
Issued by:
Amar Panicker
Published on:
31 May 2026 09:26 IST