Visa To Sponsor Football World Cup

21st June 2007

Visa looks set to gain sponsorship rights to the world's most watched sporting event, the FIFA World Cup, after rival MasterCard dropped it's legal fight to get sponsorship rights for the next 2 World Cup Tournaments in 2010 and 2014.

MasterCard, the credit card issuer which has backed the World Cup for the last 16 years, had sued FIFA in April 2006 after FIFA awarded the sponsorship for the next two World cups to Visa. MasterCard claimed it had right of first refusal on future sponsorships of the tournament, but has now reached a $90 million settlement with FIFA.

MasterCard said it decided to settle the case for business reasons, and that it no longer wanted to work with FIFA. "The substantial financial compensation to MasterCard along with severing the relationship between our two companies at the end of the day was in the best interests of MasterCard's customers and shareholders" said a MasterCard spokesperson.

FIFA said in a statement it is set to implement a contract with Visa beginning with the next World Cup in 2010 in South Africa. "Visa has followed this case with great interest, and we are pleased to see that FIFA has worked with MasterCard to resolve this issue. We look forward to full resolution of this matter in the near future" said a Visa spokesperson.