World Cup Intellectual Property Under the FIFA Statutes

1. Introduction: The deep integration of global sports business empires and intellectual property rights

The FIFA World Cup™ is not only the largest single sports event with the highest participation in the world today, but also the world's most commercially valuable and culturally influential super intellectual property (IP) aggregation. The economic radiation and social influence generated by the event have far exceeded sports itself, and have become the core engine driving the development of transnational capital, digital media and regional economy. According to statistics, the global audience for the 2022 Qatar World Cup final alone exceeded 1.5 billion, and the number of audience interactions across different media platforms during the entire event was as high as 5 billion people 1. With the historic expansion of the 2026 World Cup to 48 participating teams and a total of 104 games held in 16 cities in the United States, Canada and Mexico, this unprecedented scale will bring immeasurable commercial realization potential and extremely complex legal compliance challenges 1.

Hosting such a large-scale super event requires huge amounts of social and private capital. FIFA and its host countries are highly dependent on the financial support of official sponsors, media rights licensees and other commercial partners, and the only legal consideration for this support is the absolute exclusive possession and authorisation of the intellectual property rights of the competition. 1 In this context, the core cornerstone for maintaining the smooth operation of this huge business empire is the intellectual property system established based on the FIFA Statutes. Intellectual property rights are not only a legal shield for FIFA to protect the purity of the event brand and prevent hidden commercial marketing, but also a source for it to obtain huge broadcast, sponsorship and licensing income, and then redistribute finance to its 211 member associations around the world 2.

However, with the continuous renovation of modern commercial marketing methods, the popularity of global digital streaming media, and the explosive growth of cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR), and the Metaverse, the traditional intellectual property protection framework for events is undergoing profound reshaping and deconstruction. Transnational online piracy of broadcast signals, disputes over the ownership of high-level game data, and the ambiguity of copyright brought about by generative AI have all posed a new judicial test to the applicability of the FIFA Charter. This study aims to comprehensively analyse the World Cup intellectual property rights confirmation mechanism, authorisation and financial allocation model, host country’s special legislative transfer, anti-hidden marketing strategies, and copyright and data disputes in the digital age under the framework of the FIFA Charter, with a view to providing in-depth academic and practical insights for understanding the underlying legal logic of modern sports business empires.

2. Conflict between the intellectual property rights confirmation mechanism and legal principles in the FIFA Charter

The basis for FIFA to build its global commercial monopoly empire is to achieve the "original and exclusive possession" of all rights derived from the event through its highest constitutional document, the "FIFA Statutes." This power confirmation model not only has absolute authority in the internal governance system, but also triggers extensive legal discussions in external market competition.

Absolute ownership system of event rights

According to the clear provisions of Article 67 (Rights in competitions and events) of the latest version of the FIFA Charter in 2024, FIFA, its member associations and each continental federation are the "original owners" of all rights arising from competitions and other activities within their respective jurisdictions 3. This clause is extremely inclusive and absolute in terms of legal language, stipulating that this kind of right ownership "is not subject to any restrictions as to content, time, place and law" (without any restrictions as to content, time, place and law) 3.

Article 67 of the FIFA Statutes further details the specific forms of these rights, including but not limited to various financial rights, audiovisual and broadcast recording and playback rights, multimedia rights, marketing and promotion rights, as well as intangible rights such as logos and copyright laws 3. In addition, Article 68 of the Constitution gives FIFA exclusive distribution and commercial licensing rights for competitions within its jurisdiction 3 . This highly centralized power confirmation model constitutes a "pyramid" power delegation mechanism. For example, Article 66 of the Charter of the Central Asian Football Federation (CAFA) almost completely replicates the declaration of rights clause of the FIFA Charter, establishing the federation’s absolute commercial rights over its events 6 . This shows that FIFA’s IP rights confirmation logic has penetrated into every capillary of the global football governance system.

The judicial review of the anti-monopoly law faced by the power confirmation mechanism

However, this high degree of concentration and monopoly of rights is not impeccable under the framework of modern antitrust law (Competition Law). In the high-profile European Super League case heard by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), Articles 67 and 68 of the FIFA Statutes directly became the focus of judicial review 4. One of the core disputes in the case is whether FIFA and UEFA define themselves as the "original owners" of event rights and monopolize the marketing responsibility for these rights. This constitutes an abuse of market dominance and thus violates the prohibition on restriction of competition in Articles 101 and 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) 4.

Although the Court of Justice of the European Union in that case challenged certain pre-approval rules of the sports governing body, a comprehensive review of the model of collective sales and rights exclusivity established by Article 67 of the FIFA Statutes was not finalized by the Spanish National Court, putting on hold the best opportunity for EU law to review the current model of collective sales in the past 20 years. 4 Despite facing judicial challenges, based on the particularity of sports events, the objective need to maintain game continuity and maintain the redistribution of funds in the football ecosystem, this rights confirmation system is still the most solid cornerstone in the field of global sports law, ensuring that FIFA has undisputed bargaining power when facing global broadcasters and top sponsors.

3. World Cup Core Intellectual Property Asset System and Authorisation Rules

Based on the macro rights declaration in the "FIFA Charter", FIFA has established an extremely sophisticated and complex "Official Intellectual Property" (Official Intellectual Property) system at the specific event operation level, and has woven a tight protection network around the world through trademark law, copyright law and anti-unfair competition law.

Classification and Definition of Official Intellectual Property Assets

According to the "2026 World Cup Intellectual Property Guidelines" issued by FIFA, its core IP asset system covers identifiers in multiple dimensions such as visual, textual, and creative derivatives, and its protection boundaries extend to major jurisdictions around the world 1.

Asset categories	Specific manifestations and core elements	Dimensions of legal protection and rights protection mechanisms
Core Logo and Graphics	Official Emblem, official text combination, customized logos for 16 host cities, FIFA Corporate Mark and FIFA Plus digital platform logo, two-dimensional and three-dimensional visual representation of the Hercules Cup 1.	Registered trademark rights, design patents, and anti-unfair competition law. As a cornerstone asset, any unauthorised visual recreation of the Hercules Cup will trigger severe legal sanctions2.
Text and symbol logo	Official slogan (including English, Spanish, French versions), independent slogans of each host city, word trademarks with high commercial value (such as "FIFA World Cup 26™", "World Cup™", "FIFA®", "Copa Mundial™", "Mundial™", etc.) 1.	Cross-category trademark rights protection. Even though the term "World Cup" has a certain generality, FIFA still asserts its monopoly rights on football events and related derivatives on a global scale 8.
Creative and Derivative Assets	Creative content such as official fonts ("FWC 26" and "FWC 2026"), official mascot (Official Mascot), official event posters and host city promotional posters customized for the 2026 event 1.	Copyright (copyright), font design registration, and merchandising rights (Merchandising Rights) under the derivatives authorisation system 1.

Business Compliance and "Digital Archives" Authorisation Mechanism

In terms of usage rules, FIFA has implemented a strict "dualized" access system. Only officially appointed commercial affiliates (including FIFA global partners, World Cup sponsors, regional supporters), media rights licensors (responsible for television, radio, broadband and mobile broadcasts) and official licensees may use official IP for direct commercial monetization purposes 1. For any ordinary business entity without authorization, even simply mentioning "World Cup 2026™" in a social media post or promotional advertisement, there is a high risk of falling into the trap of trademark infringement and facing prosecution1.

At the level of news reporting and editorial use, FIFA has established the "FIFA Digital Archive" as the only legal distribution channel for official materials. According to its system regulations, media organizations applying for official logos for non-commercial editorial use must meet strict Digital Platform Agreement requirements, including enabling JavaScript and accepting tracking cookies, and authenticating logins through highly sensitive case-matching passwords 1. Applicants must submit a detailed "Mark Request Form" (Mark Request Form), along with the layout design plan to be used, which can only be used legally after being strictly reviewed and approved by FIFA's legal affairs and brand protection teams 1. This mechanism ensures that even reasonable use of media news is completely within FIFA's monitoring and authorisation framework.

4. Commercial realization, economic radiation and feedback mechanism of intellectual property

The complex provisions on intellectual property rights in the "FIFA Charter" ultimately aim to achieve global commercial realization and maintain a huge sports ecosystem with financial feedback as its core. The huge cash flow brought by intellectual property licensing directly determines the development trajectory of global football.

Commercial Licensing Model and Record Revenue Expectations

FIFA implements a strict tiered sponsorship model globally, divided into three echelons: FIFA Partners, FIFA World Cup Sponsors and National Supporters11. Facts have proven that sports events can only be transformed into high-value business ventures when supported by a strong intellectual property legal framework. Data shows that during the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, as much as 88% of the total revenue came directly from these media and marketing contracts derived from IP rights 11 .

Entering the 2026 North American World Cup cycle, FIFA is expected to usher in the most successful commercial monetization cycle in its history thanks to flexible sponsorship package designs (such as allowing sponsors to purchase additional multi-region add-on packages and VIP experience rights). FIFA's official budget report shows that the total revenue budget for 2026 will reach a staggering US$8.911 billion13. Among them, in addition to commercial sponsorship and partnership agreement revenue of up to US$2.7 billion (involving international giants such as Adidas, Coca-Cola, Aramco and other international giants), licensing deals for physical derivatives based on trademarks and brands are expected to contribute a separate net income of US$670 million 12.

In terms of the design of the financial structure of specific licensing agreements, FIFA generally adopts the dynamic model of "minimum guarantee threshold + Royalty payments" 14. Not only that, FIFA also attaches great importance to the calculation of "value-in-kind" in financial settlements. For example, in fiscal year 2023, even though it is not the year the World Cup is held, its total licensing revenue still reached approximately US$181 million, of which US$1.6 million was included in the financial report as consideration for goods or services provided by the licensor 14. For global apparel manufacturing, accessories processing and sports equipment OEMs/ODMs, successfully joining FIFA's list of licensed manufacturers (whether brand owners or non-brand contractors) must overcome extremely high intellectual property compliance thresholds and quality audits, but it is also a fast lane to a consumer market worth hundreds of millions of dollars15.

Global benefit redistribution and economic radiation of IP dividends

As a nominally non-profit organization, FIFA must, in accordance with its legal objectives, return most of the commercial revenue generated from IP to football 2. With the expansion of the event in 2026, its profit distribution mechanism has also reached an unprecedented scale. The FIFA Council has approved a 15% increase in the funding pool allocated to the 48 participating teams, to a total of US$871 million16. The most eye-catching one is the total prize pool of US$655 million (50% more than the Qatar World Cup). The champion team will receive US$50 million. Even the teams that fail to break through the group stage (33rd to 48th) will also receive a guaranteed bonus of US$9 million. 18. In addition, the preparation funds for each team were increased to US$2.5 million, the qualifier subsidy was increased to US$10 million, and an additional US$16 million was added for team travel and ticketing subsidies 16.

The deeper feedback is reflected in the investment in global football infrastructure. During the 2023-2026 cycle, FIFA will allocate approximately US$2.7 billion directly as funds to its 211 member associations and six continental confederations around the world12. Each member association can unconditionally receive up to US$1.25 million in daily operation support funds, plus a special football project development fund of US$3 million; each confederation will also receive a regional promotion budget of US$15 million 13. This global fund allocation system based on the profits from intellectual property monopoly not only consolidates FIFA's governance foundation, but is also regarded by some analysts as an effective means for the current leadership to maintain political support. 12

At the macroeconomic level, the implementation of World Cup intellectual property rights has also greatly stimulated the local economy of the host country. A report released by the World Economic Forum (WEF) states that the sports and entertainment industry is becoming one of the ten core engines of future global economic growth, and it is expected that the overall scale of the sports economy will reach US$8.8 trillion by 205019. The report even cited the case of Wrexham in Wales to prove the miraculous effect of the football entertainment industry in reversing local low employment rates and economic depression19. Specifically, by the 2026 World Cup, Los Angeles alone is expected to attract nearly 150,000 additional tourists, bringing more than US$594 million in direct consumption and an additional US$34.9 million in tax revenue 20. Even a city that serves only as a team training camp (such as Houston) is expected to create direct economic benefits of US$10 million to US$30 million through accommodation, catering, transportation and local services21.

5. Inspection of national sovereignty transfer and host country’s special legislation (Lex Specialis)

In order to fully protect the exclusive commercial interests of FIFA and its official sponsors, FIFA often requires candidate governments to sign a stringent "Host City Agreement" when selecting a World Cup host country. 22 These agreements go beyond ordinary commercial contracts and essentially require sovereign countries to make major concessions in terms of intellectual property protection, customs enforcement and even advertising control, and even require the host country to amend domestic laws or promulgate tailor-made "Lex Specialis"23.

The evolution path of special legislation in previous host countries

Looking at several World Cups since the 21st century, the host country has shown an escalating trend of compromise in the legislative protection of intellectual property rights:

1. South Africa (2010): In order to meet FIFA's anti-subtle marketing requirements, the South African government promulgated the famous "2010 FIFA World Cup Special Measures Act" 23. The most eye-catching provision of the bill is the legal status of "exclusion zones", which are designated radii around competition venues to strictly prohibit any unauthorised business activities. In addition, South Africa has also significantly revised its Merchandise Marks Act and introduced special advertising standards regulations, devoting national legislative resources to respond to the intellectual property protection requirements of events23.
2. Brazil (2014): Brazil withstood tremendous diplomatic and commercial pressure from FIFA during the preparations, and finally the president signed and promulgated the highly controversial "General World Cup Law" 23. The law not only comprehensively prohibits the registration of any trademark that may remind consumers of the event, but also gives FIFA the privilege to apply directly to the Brazilian courts for an injunction23. More severely, the law provides for criminal penalties of up to one year in prison for infringement of FIFA’s intellectual property rights23. It is worth noting that the legislative reforms triggered by the World Cup have had a profound impact on Brazil. In the context of non-governmental organizations such as Doctors Without Borders (MSF) promoting the reform of intellectual property policies in the BRICS countries, Brazil's intellectual property legalization process continues to accelerate 25. In 2023, Brazil officially promulgated the General Sports Law (General Sports Law) GSL), officially criminalizing "hidden marketing" in the form of a national law, and establishing strict protection of event broadcasting rights (known as "Arena Rights" or Arena Rights), which is undoubtedly the most important legal legacy left by the 2014 World Cup 26.
3. Russia (2018) and Qatar (2022): Russia passed Federal Law No. 108-FZ ("World Cup Law") in 2013, which strictly prohibits in statutory form any marketing activities aimed at establishing a connection with FIFA without written permission, using event tickets for lottery promotions, and upgrading violations to felonies subject to criminal penalties 27. Qatar has comprehensively strengthened its originally weak intellectual property protection system on the eve of the 2022 World Cup, giving the intellectual property border protection department under the Ministry of Finance great law enforcement discretion and resolutely intercepting the import of counterfeit goods suspected of infringement 28. This also affects advertising strategies in different regions. For example, from Brazil to Russia to Qatar, the marketing strategies of alcohol sponsors vary with the host country.

Continuously evolving due to changes in the law29.

The "clean zone" conflict and constitutional controversy of the 2026 North American World Cup

Compared with the above-mentioned countries, the host countries of the 2026 World Cup (the United States, Canada, and Mexico) have the most mature intellectual property legal framework in the world, which has also led FIFA to encounter completely different judicial resistance when promoting "special legislation" locally. In the case of Canada, the federal government has explicitly refused to enact a single-line “anti-covert marketing” law for this event similar to that of Brazil or South Africa 30 . Instead, Canada relies on its existing Trademark, Copyright and Competition Act, supplemented by court-issued Anton Piller civil search warrants, Mareva asset freeze orders, and Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) anti-counterfeiting seizure procedures to enforce its rights. 30

Despite the lack of a single law at the national level, the task of exclusive protection of intellectual property rights is devolved to local municipalities (Municipalities) 30 . In cities such as Toronto and Vancouver, city halls have used their local regulations to promulgate extremely stringent “Brand-exclusive clean zones” regulations 10 . During the event, a two-kilometer area around the venue will be designated as a restricted area, and unauthorised commercial signs, mobile sales stalls and marketing activities will be completely banned10.

However, this practice of using administrative power to delineate "clean zones" to protect the sponsorship income of private institutions has triggered protracted legal and constitutional disputes in North America. In the United States, cities that have hosted Super Bowls in the past have also established clean zones at the request of the National Football League (NFL), but this directly touched the red line of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution regarding the protection of "commercial speech." 31 In Arlington and Fort Worth, Texas, and in New Orleans in 2013, local small and micro businesses and civil rights organizations have repeatedly alleged violations of the First Amendment and the Lanham Act. 31. A recent ruling by the Arizona Supreme Court further sheds light on the legal dilemma of “clean zones”: they are essentially government enforcement efforts to protect private sports organizations’ multi-million dollar sponsorship monopolies at the expense of the fundamental rights of territorial non-sponsors to lawfully conduct business. 32 How to balance FIFA's exclusive commercial interests and North America's extremely strong demands for free speech and fair competition during the 2026 World Cup will become a difficult judicial challenge.

6. Legal regulations and boundary definition of implicit marketing (Ambush Marketing)

The direct goal of building a strict intellectual property protection network is to prevent and combat "Ambush Marketing". This kind of marketing behaviour is an unauthorised way for the brand to mislead the public into thinking that it has an official partnership with the event through ingenious creative design. As a result, the brand illegally extracts event dividends without paying huge sponsorship fees, which directly dilutes the commercial value of the official sponsor. 2

Classification and iconic cases of implicit marketing

In sports law practice, implicit marketing is mainly classified into the following three forms:

1. Ambush by association: Companies deliberately avoid directly using protected registered trademarks such as "World Cup 2026" and instead use suggestive visual language - such as combining the colors of the host country's flag, universal football elements, passionate fan cheers and specific event schedules to build a fictitious connection between the brand and the event in consumers' perceptions 33.
2. Ambush by intrusion: refers to unauthorised brands using various means to achieve forced exposure inside and outside competition venues or official fan carnival areas 33. The most famous negative teaching material in the history of sports marketing is undoubtedly the Dutch beer brand Bavaria. At the 2006 World Cup in Germany, the brand distributed thousands of pairs of Bavarian leather pants with its signature orange elements to fans in attendance, forcing FIFA security personnel to ask fans to take off their leather pants before entering, causing an uproar. At the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the brand went even further and organized 36 women wearing bright orange dresses to appear in the stands. This provocative behaviour led FIFA to immediately file criminal charges against the event organizers and arrest some participants. 27
3. Opportunistic/real-time implicit marketing (Opportunistic ambush): This type of marketing mainly relies on the instantaneous communication characteristics of modern social media. Companies track hot events in the game in real time and use short videos or graphics with a strong online feel to follow the trend and interact, thereby gaining popularity from the event 33.

FIFA’s Counter-Tools and Competition Law ‘Safe Harbor’

Faced with the proliferation of hidden marketing, FIFA's legal team adopted a zero-tolerance high-pressure countermeasures strategy. For FIFA, covert marketing amounts to direct theft of the official business plan2. In addition to applying for injunctions from the courts of various host countries, FIFA is also decisive in safeguarding its rights in the field of digital domain names. As early as 2000, FIFA has successfully won back multiple event domain names that were maliciously registered, including "worldcup2010.org" and the subsequent "southafrica2010.org" through the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). This is due to its careful litigation planning and brand rights protection strategy 35. In addition, the secret manipulation of event broadcast rights is also a cancer that destroys the value of IP. In the FIFA corruption case that has shocked the global sports world in recent years, former Fox International Channel executive Hernan Lopez and Full Play Group were accused of paying bribes in the process of obtaining broadcast rights and confidential information for the Copa Libertadores and the 2018/2022 World Cup. This profoundly reflects the shocking interest game behind the broadcast rights of the event. Although the U.S. Department of Justice recently proposed to the Supreme Court to drop the lawsuit out of judicial interests, this still reveals serious compliance risks in the field of large-scale sports IP licensing36.

However, extreme intellectual property protection does not equate to depriving all competitors of their right to speak out. Under the competition law systems of various countries, the principle of fair use delineates a "safe harbor" for legal marketing for non-sponsors. Legal experts point out that it is legal for local small and micro businesses to use purely descriptive terms to promote their business (such as “Watch football with discounts” or use generic football imagery) 10 . The key criterion is whether such marketing constitutes a "direct association" that directly causes consumer confusion. As long as the brand carries out the celebration as a member of the local community and does not steal FIFA's proprietary IP identifier, its actions can usually avoid being found to be infringing10.

7. Breakthroughs in the digital age: signal piracy, digital broadcasting rights and social platform gaming

Innovations in digital streaming technology have revolutionized the way fans consume the World Cup. The instantaneous irreversibility of sports events gives their real-time audiovisual copyrights a very high time-sensitive premium. However, this also makes it a prime target for global online piracy and illegal online dissemination.

Criminal and technical means to jointly combat signal piracy

Free and illegal sports live streaming not only robs legal licensees of huge traffic, but also seriously threatens the property and data security of end users because it is often accompanied by malware downloads 39 . During the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), together with the U.S. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Baltimore Branch and the National Intellectual Property Coordination Centre (IPR Center), launched a joint law enforcement storm against pirated live broadcasts of the event 39 . Using advanced network investigation techniques, law enforcement officers examined and confirmed multiple batches of websites that illegally transmitted copyrighted content of events that were not authorised by FIFA, and finally decisively sealed a total of 78 international domain names suspected of network signal piracy 39 . Visitors to the seized domain were forcibly redirected to a federal government statement page. This deterrent move sends a strong signal to the world: long-arm jurisdiction based on Internet site infrastructure is a powerful weapon in combating transnational copyright infringement.

In addition to criminal justice methods, broadcasters are also making extensive use of technological barriers. Major broadcasters and streaming services rely on sophisticated digital rights management (DRM) technology to provide strong encryption of live streams. Historical cases show that top sports organizations such as the Premier League have successfully applied to the British High Court for a blocking injunction to force Internet service providers (ISPs) to block detected illegal streaming servers at network backbone nodes. This provides a valuable litigation precedent for FIFA to protect digital copyrights42.

Social media platform co-governance and strategic distribution of digital rights

Faced with the massive infringement of short video clips on social media, FIFA no longer just relies on post-facto accountability, but chooses to deeply bind interests with social giants and internalize anti-piracy obligations into the commercial responsibilities of the platform. For the 2026 World Cup, FIFA has reached a global "Preferred Platform" cooperation agreement with the short video platform TikTok 43. This not only means that TikTok users can enjoy exclusive behind-the-scenes footage and customized live stream clips officially provided by FIFA, but the more core legal clause is that TikTok promises to implement strict anti-piracy technical policies at the entire platform level to protect FIFA’s intellectual property from illegal editing in massive user-generated content (UGC) 44.

Additionally, licensing models for digital rights are becoming increasingly complex and exclusive. In the Chinese market, the digital evolution of broadcast rights is particularly obvious. Since the 2018 World Cup in Russia, China Central Radio and Television (CCTV), which holds exclusive all-media rights, has distributed the digital live broadcast rights of the event to Migu and Youku for the first time, and will further expand to Douyin in 2022. 46 Regarding the future digital rights of FIBA ​​and potential football matches, China Mobile’s Migu platform will continue to obtain exclusive digital rights through its accumulation of 5G, AI and Metaverse broadcast technologies 47. In the North American market, major technology and media giants are also competing for digital distribution monopoly rights. For example, Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. once tried to jointly launch the streaming service platform Venu Sports, but were immediately hit by an antitrust lawsuit from rival FuboTV, accusing the joint venture of obstructing fair competition. This highlighted that the legal battle in the field of digital sports copyright has become intense 48 .

8. The battle for data sovereignty: the conflict between high-level analytical data and player privacy protection

In addition to pure audio and video copyrights, the massive "Match Data" derived from professional football matches is becoming the "new oil" fiercely contested by major gaming companies, broadcasters and technology companies. The ownership of the intellectual property rights of these data constitutes the forefront of controversy in today's sports law circles.

Match Data rights confirmation dilemma and patent dispute

Is event data protected by law? The answer to this question depends on the shape of the data. In the traditional legal analysis framework, data is usually divided into “raw data” and “structured data” 49 . Raw data such as scores, red and yellow cards, and playing time objectively reflect the facts of the game. Due to the lack of "original" input from the creator, they usually cannot be attributed to any entity and are not protected by intellectual property laws. 49 However, if a data analysis company uses complex tracking technology and algorithmic models to convert massive amounts of player movement trajectories, ball possession rates, and expected goals into structured high-level indicators, such data collections will most likely be protected by copyright law through the Database Protection Directive (in Europe) or as a compilation work. Even the computer programme that executes the computational logic behind it may also apply for patent protection (although it is subject to the strict review standards of business methods and intellectual activities under patent law) 49.

Historically, the famous "NBA v. Motorola" case has profoundly revealed the tension between sports organizations' claims for exclusive rights to event data and the public's right to obtain information 51 . The "Project Red Card" lawsuit that has attracted much attention in recent years has brought the legality of the systematic use of players' personal performance data to court, highlighting the entangled interests of clubs, leagues and third-party analysis agencies in the process of monetizing data 50 .

FIFA’s data monopoly strategy and data protection regulations

FIFA has shown a strong aggressiveness in fighting for data sovereignty. First, FIFA promulgated the targeted FIFA Data Protection Regulations (FIFA DPRs) in 201952. Although the Regulation draws heavily on the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in terms of data protection principles and data subject rights framework, its scope of application is more focused and aims to regulate the compliant collection and processing of player and participant biometric and sports performance data by football organizations at all levels around the world52.

More importantly, FIFA is trying to completely monopolize the data monetization market by granting exclusive licence rights for data distribution. During the 2026 World Cup cycle, FIFA designated Opta, a well-known sports data provider, as its first official exclusive distributor of betting data and streaming rights in the world53. The direct knock-on effect of this business decision was that FBref (operated by Sports Reference), an independent football statistics website popular with fans and analysts, was forced to unilaterally remove all high-end football data due to its inability to afford the high acquisition costs and avoid potential legal disputes53. This incident has been criticized by the industry as a step back in the "data democratization" of the sports world. Critics believe that companies monopolize data distribution channels in order to maximize data concession revenue from the gambling industry, seriously stifling academic and commercial innovation in the football data ecosystem53.

At the same time, live video broadcasts and data of low-level events have also become compliance blind spots. According to the investigation agency Play the Game, a large number of offshore illegal betting operators without legal supervision are using the free low-level match signals (such as matches in Antigua and Barbuda and Aruba) provided by FIFA’s own streaming platform (FIFA+) to openly provide in-play betting around the world. This behaviour not only blatantly violates Article 3 of the Macolin Convention, which prohibits illegal sports betting, but also provides a breeding ground for criminal activities such as match-fixing55. This shows that while FIFA is accelerating the monetization of data and broadcast rights, it also urgently needs to fill the legal supervision loopholes in which content on its platform is illegally exploited by black producers.

9. Subversion and reinvention: IP challenges brought by cutting-edge technologies such as AI, VR and the Metaverse

Facing 2026 and beyond, artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR) broadcast technology and the Metaverse ecosystem based on the Web3 concept are fundamentally rewriting the paradigm of generation, monitoring and protection of event intellectual property.

Copyright dilemma and automated rights protection brought about by generative AI

On the one hand, artificial intelligence has given FIFA strong brand protection capabilities. In response to the global epidemic of counterfeit World Cup merchandise, FIFA is increasingly relying on AI-powered intellectual property protection systems. The system can scan global e-commerce platforms and social networks 24 hours a day, use advanced image recognition algorithms to compare massive product lists, and realize automatic interception and batch removal of infringing peripheral products. As Mike Palmisciano, a legal practitioner, pointed out, in the context of FIFA’s tough law enforcement, official sponsors also need to use AI technology to assume more active rights protection obligations 56. Not only that, broadcasters such as NBC Sports Channel and YouTube use AI to automatically generate highlights, and LaLiga uses AI to perform real-time automatic multilingual translation, which greatly improves the efficiency of content distribution 58.

But on the other hand, the popularity of generative artificial intelligence has completely broken the threshold of content creation. Ordinary fans and small and micro businesses can now use AI to generate highly realistic but unauthorised World Cup carnival images by entering a few prompts, and use them for social marketing and even commercial monetization. Legal experts warn that if such AI-generated images contain any official emblems, mascots, protected sponsor logos or identifiable likenesses of real players, even if they are algorithmically generated, they will still undoubtedly constitute infringement. 38 In addition, does the event video collection generated by AI independently deciding the editing perspective and content meet the requirements of human originality under the "Copyright Laws" of various countries? In the multi-perspective reconstruction broadcast of virtual reality (VR), when the audience replaces the director as the selector of visual perspectives, what is the basis of the rights of traditional broadcasting organizations? These cutting-edge issues accompanying the wave of digitalization have made the legal application of intellectual property rights in the field of sports broadcasting full of variables and controversies58.

Yuanverse Strategy and Trademark Defence of Virtual Assets

Facing the development trend of the next generation of immersive Internet, FIFA, major sports brands and world-class stars have been keenly aware of the huge commercial interests and legal risks in the Metaverse, and have begun to build defensive trademark moats in the virtual world in advance 60.

Protecting portrait rights and brand logos in the virtual space has become a compulsory course in the sports world. Recent cases and registration actions demonstrate the diversity of this rights protection trend: the famous star Lionel Messi successfully overcame objections and registered a graphic trademark containing his surname in the UK; Chelsea star Cole Palmer even applied for a "motion trade mark" for his iconic "trembling" celebration; retired star Paul Gascoigne and tennis star John McEnroe McEnroe also successfully applied for trademark registration for his nickname "Gazza" and his famous saying "You cannot be serious"63. In addition, the estate of the late basketball superstar Kobe Bryant is also the first representative to apply for Metaverse trademark protection for its virtual and digital goods to prevent others from misusing its name and brand in virtual reality 64 .

For FIFA, it is its core legal strategy to extend the trademark protection scope of "FIFA World Cup 26™" and related core assets to virtual goods (Virtual Goods), non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and online interactive game services in advance. This is not only to prevent third parties from making and selling virtual "Hercules Cups" without authorisation on metaverse platforms such as Roblox or Decentraland for profit, but also to clear legal obstacles for FIFA to deeply integrate new business models such as cryptocurrency sponsorship (DeFi ecosystem) and virtual ticket sales in the future 60. In the virtual world, "passing off" and false endorsement lawsuits caused by the unauthorised use of avatars of well-known figures (refer to the classic case of Irvine and Fenty under British law) will surely break out during the future Digital World Cup 63.

10. Conclusion

The World Cup intellectual property system based on the FIFA Charter is not only a cross-border business operation guide, but also the most concentrated expression of the underlying legal logic of the operation of modern large-scale sports events. Through an in-depth analysis of its legal rights confirmation, commercial licensing and profit distribution, special legislative phenomena of the host country, implicit marketing blocking strategies, and cutting-edge technological challenges of digital and data copyright, the following core insights can be drawn:

First of all, power and exclusivity are the unshakable foundation of FIFA’s intellectual property system. Through the self-certification and authorisation restrictions in Article 67 of the Charter, FIFA has built a private monopoly network maintained by extremely strict contract terms and judicial injunctions. Although this kind of rights monopoly has encountered the impact of anti-monopoly legal principles in some areas, it is indeed an inevitable economic model that maintains billions of dollars in back-funding funds and supports the operation of the huge global football pyramid.

Secondly, the legal practice of large-scale sports IP has profoundly reshaped the intervention boundaries of national public power. From the special separate criminal laws in South Africa and Brazil to the urban "clear zone" regulations in North America that have stirred up constitutional disputes about "freedom of speech" and "commercial fairness" during the 2026 tournament, the mandatory implementation of World Cup intellectual property rights often means a limited transfer of national sovereignty in commercial legislation. How to protect the exclusive interests of multinational sponsors while avoiding infringement on the basic commercial rights of local communities and non-sponsor small and micro enterprises will be a long-standing legal problem that has plagued event hosting sites.

Finally, digital survival and the intervention of cutting-edge technology are irreversibly dismantling the traditional sports IP governance model. From cross-border joint criminal actions to investigate and prosecute pirated domain names, to co-governance agreements between FIFA and platforms such as TikTok to block infringement through algorithms; from the high-level data exclusivity controversy in sports venues to cater for gambling revenue, to the subversion of traditional copyright laws by AI content generation and Metaverse virtual trademarks, the battleground for intellectual property defence has been fully shifted to code, algorithms and virtual space. Looking forward to the future, if all participating entities want to reap dividends in this business feast intertwined by law, capital and high technology, they must deeply understand and respect this set of World Cup intellectual property game rules that are constantly evolving in the midst of disruption.

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