Do host countries earn money from the World Cup?

The football World Cup is the biggest sporting event in the global calendar, El.kz cites aljazeera. 

More than five billion people are expected to tune in to watch the sporting spectacular in Qatar, with more than a million turning up to watch the games in person.

From ticket and merchandise sales to corporate sponsorship, prize money and tourism, there are immense amounts of money kicking around an event like this.

But, for a host country, is it financially worth it? The short answer is no.

Most countries hosting a World Cup spend tens of billions on preparations, developing infrastructure, building hotels and so on. Much of that is often not recouped, at least not in terms of hard cash.

The World Cup certainly is a money-spinner. TV rights for the 2018 World Cup in Russia were sold to broadcasters around the world for $4.6bn. But that is kept by FIFA, football’s world governing body.

As are ticket sales, which are owned by a subsidiary company 100 percent owned by FIFA. Marketing rights, which brought in more than $1bn in the 2018 cycle are, too, kept by FIFA.

The body does, however, cover the principal costs of running the tournament – it will be paying Qatar in the region of $1.7bn, though that includes a $440m prize pot for teams.

But Qatar is understood to have spent in excess of $200bn on this World Cup and the infrastructure around it – hotels and leisure facilities, overhauling its entire road network and constructing a rail system.

With more than a million overseas visitors expected during the month-long tournament, a host country will see a tourism spike, increasing sales for hoteliers, restaurateurs and the like. But such a surge requires extra capacity to be built, the expense of which is usually far larger than the revenues generated short term.

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