Front Line Op-Ed: Can the World Cup Be Privately Managed?

Nuno Perestrelo0

Launched on 4 June 2026 in Record, Portugal’s leading sports newspaper, SIGA’s weekly opinion column Linha da Frente (Front Line, in Portuguese) provides a dedicated platform to address issues at the heart of SIGA’s global agenda, including Sport Integrity, good governance, transparency, accountability, financial integrity, sports betting integrity, sustainability, youth development and protection, and the future of sport.

Click to read this week’s article in Portuguese.

Can the World Cup Be Privately Managed?

By Fernando Veiga Gomes, Chair of the Ethics Committee of the Sport Integrity Global Alliance (SIGA), Lawyer and Sports Law Specialist

World sport is going through a delicate moment. The recent controversies surrounding FIFA have generated one of the biggest international controversies since FIFAgate in 2015. This is not an isolated problem concerning a single organisation. The issues raised transcend any one entity and pose fundamental questions about governance, accountability, transparency and institutional credibility across the entire sports ecosystem.

Against this backdrop, an idea that is far from new has returned to public debate: could football — and, in particular, its biggest event, the World Cup — be managed by private entities? The answer is not straightforward, but the history of sport provides important clues.

Formula 1 is the most paradigmatic example. For decades, the commercial and competitive management of the championship was dominated by private interests, with the FIA acting as the sporting regulator. The model worked — and produced a global entertainment product with astronomical audiences and revenues — precisely because there is a clear separation between regulatory authority and commercial interests, and because the rules of the game were, to a large extent, predictable and shared. Other sports, from tennis to basketball, have followed similar paths, with private investors injecting capital, innovation and global reach into competitions that might otherwise have remained limited in scope.

Could football follow the same path with the World Cup? The tournament’s astronomical revenues make it attractive to any private operator. And there are solid arguments in favour: greater efficiency, greater investment capacity, a better fan experience, and more revenue to distribute. But — and this is a very big “but” — football is not merely a commercial product. It is a global public good. And that is precisely why governance is non-negotiable.

SIGA was created to help sport move beyond statements of principle towards measurable standards, independent scrutiny and continuous improvement. This is the philosophy that must underpin any process involving private entities in the management of competitions of this magnitude. Good governance challenges cannot be addressed only after crises emerge: they require prevention, measurable standards and independent verification.

Any partnership model for managing the World Cup must therefore rest on three fundamental pillars. First, complete transparency: contracts, selection criteria and financial flows must be public and auditable. Second, regulatory independence: football, like Formula 1, must preserve the separation between those responsible for commercial management and those responsible for sporting regulation. Third, external verification: the SIGA Universal Standards on Sport Integrity and the SIRVS independent verification and certification system exist precisely to ensure that sports organisations meet the highest standards of governance.

This moment represents an opportunity not only to reflect on what is happening, but to determine how it can be transformed into meaningful governance reforms for the benefit of world sport.

Football now has the opportunity to lead by example. But leading by example means, first and foremost, ensuring that the process itself is exemplary. The private management of a competition such as the World Cup is not, in itself, wrong. It is the process of getting there — if opaque, rushed or captured by vested interests — that represents the real danger. And it is to protect sport, by preventing reputational risks, that SIGA will continue to work, without hesitation.

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ABOUT SIGA

SIGA is the world’s leading organisation for Sport Integrity. We are creating a whole new landscape for the sports industry by delivering independent global rating and certification for world Sport to ensure it is governed and operates under the highest integrity standards: The SIGA Universal Standards.

Funded by our Members, SIGA is a non for profit global independent organisation with one aim: To ensure the sport  industry is governed under the highest integrity standards so that the values of sport are protected.

SIGA is the only organisation to bring together sport, governments, academia, international organisations, sponsors, business, rights holders, NGOs and professional services companies, from every region in the world, around a common cause of fostering greater integrity throughout sport.

SIGA is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, as a non for-profit association, and comprises of the following continental subsidiaries: SIGA AMERICA, SIGA EUROPE and SIGA LATIN AMERICA.

For more information on SIGA, including its vision, mission and reform agenda, please refer to the website: www.siga-sport.com and FAQs.

To contact SIGA, please email: comms@siga-sport.com.

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