1. What will it take to build FIFA as a brand?

2. Can soccer be transformed into a mainstream sport in the United States, on a par with baseball, football, and basketball?

When John Brooks, a defender on the U.S. men۪s national soccer team, scored the winning goal against Ghana late in a first-round game of the F̩d̩ration Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) 2014 World Cup at Arena Amazonia, nearly 16 million American TV viewers were tuned in. The victory in Brazil was especially sweet because Ghana۪s Black Stars was the team that had defeated the Americans in a second-round game at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Ghana had also ended Team USA۪s hopes in the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

In the end, the U.S. team bowed out before the final, losing to Portugal in a game that attracted nearly 25 million American TV viewers. The record-setting television audience for World Cup 2014 provided evidence of soccer€™s growing popularity in the United States. Indeed, as Stephen Criss, senior director of consumer engagement and marketing services for North America at snack-food marketer Mondelez International, noted in 2013, €œThe sport of soccer is at a tipping point and in our eyes is going to explode.€

Soccer enjoys a reputation as €œthe world€™s sport€ and €œthe beautiful game.€ In a recent book, John Quelch and Katherine Jocz note that top professional soccer clubs€”including England€™s Premier League and Spain€™s La Liga€”have embraced the power of global marketing. For example, they recruit personnel of different nationalities. The same is true of national teams at the World Cup. Team USA 2014 was a case in point: The coach and several of the players were German; one team member was from Iceland, and another from Norway. In addition, the teams use Web sites and social media to interact with fans around the world. For example, Real Madrid has more than 64 million €œLikes€ on Facebook!
In addition, FIFA has done much to popularize the sport around the world. Based in Zurich, Switzerland, FIFA is soccer€™s governing body. Years ago, it began promoting the sport in key emerging markets. Notes sport management professor Stefan Szymanki, €œFIFA took resources and put them into Africa and Asia, and that has paid great dividends.€ During the 2010 World Cup, FIFA generated $3.5 billion in revenues from sponsorships and television rights; revenues from the 2014 World Cup totaled $4.8 billion.

World Cup Fever: A Global Outbreak
World Cup fever breaks out around the world every four years; when it does, it seems that all eyes are on the game. The 2010 World Cup, held in South Africa, was broadcast on more than 300 television channels in 214 countries and territories. It attracted a cumulative audience of 26 billion people; an estimated 1 billion people tuned in for the championship game between Spain and the Netherlands. ESPN and ABC, both units of Walt Disney Company, spent $100 million for the rights to broadcast the World Cup in 2010 and 2014. Global marketers, keen to capitalize on a huge television-viewing audience, spend tens of millions of dollars as partners, sponsors, and advertisers (see Exhibit 4-11).

Although the American team advanced to the semifinals in 2010 and again in 2014, the game still enjoys greater popularity in other parts of the world. In the words of soccer analyst Roger Bennett, America is €œthe last major outpost of soccer apathy.€ Bennett, cohost of Men in Blazers on NBC Sports Network, once noted that the World Cup tournament is €œHomer€™s Odyssey in cleats.€ Bennett is on record as saying that soccer is doomed to forever be €œAmerica€™s sport of the future.€

Exhibit 4-11

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