England and USA best for FIFA revenue
Reuters - Tuesday 30 November 2010, 07:00
ZURICH - World Cups held in England and
the United States would meet all of FIFA's projected revenue
targets and deliver bigger profits to world football's governing
body than any of their competitors, according to a
confidential report seen by Reuters.
Both England, who are bidding for the 2018 finals, and the
U.S., bidding for 2022, were given an unbeatable overall 100
percent rating by management consultants McKinsey.
McKinsey were commissioned by FIFA to analyse each bid
across five key revenue streams: sponsorship, ticketing,
hospitality, licensing and media rights.
The report, which does not reveal FIFA's projected target
figure, just each country's potential to meet it, has been
sent to the 22 FIFA members who will decide the destinations
of the two World Cups on Thursday.
It will be discussed by the executive committee for the
first time on Wednesday.
The report, entitled FIFA's World Cup Host Candidate
Assessment, gave England an overall 100 percent rating for
2018, followed by Spain/Portugal with 91 percent,
Netherlands/Belgium 87 percent and Russia 86 percent.
For 2022, it rated the United States top with an overall
100 percent evaluation, followed by Japan with 73 percent,
South Korea 71 percent, Qatar 70 percent, and Australia on 68
percent.
HIGHEST REVENUE POTENTIAL
England scored 100 percent in all five of the revenue
stream areas, while the United States scored 100 percent in
four.
All the European candidates for 2018 scored 100 percent in
media rights because McKinsey did not see a variation in
revenue potential as all countries fall into the same European
time zone for broadcasting matches.
The biggest difference in any 2018 revenue stream came in
hospitality in which England again scored 100 percent and
Russia 56 percent.
England also had the highest revenue potential in
licensing and merchandising, likely to hit 100 percent of its
target figure, while Netherlands/Belgium scored 73 percent.
The report comes as a huge boost to England's bid for 2018
in particular, following the BBC's Panorama TV programme
screened on Monday evening in the United Kingdom which alleged
corruption at the head of world football's governing body.
The McKinsey report comes after the publication of FIFA's
Technical Evaluation reports following the visit of its
inspectors in which England were also given the highest rating
by the inspection team.
Andy Anson, the chief executive of England's bid campaign,
told a media briefing on Monday that the team had been
encouraged by the report, without going into the details,
obtained by Reuters later.
"FIFA gave us a very strong technical evaluation. FIFA
have now had an economic study and England comes out way ahead
of its competitors in that study, and we clearly have the
strongest bid for 2018 - its the perfect foundation."