FIFA and Fanatics announced on Thursday a long-term, exclusive collectibles licensing deal that features trading cards, stickers and trading card games.
The agreement, which will begin in full in 2031, covers both physical and digital collectibles, with one of the first coming during this summer’s World Cup.
Players participating in their first World Cup this summer will wear a debut patch that will be stored for cards to be released five years from now. The debut patch program began in 2023 with Major League Baseball.
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“Across the sports landscape, we see that Fanatics are driving massive innovation in collectibles that provides fans with a new, meaningful way to engage with their favorite teams and with their favorite players,” FIFA President Gianni Infantino said in a statement.
“So, from FIFA’s point of view, we can globalize that fan engagement precisely thanks to our global tournament portfolio. And this provides another important commercial revenue stream that we channel back, as always, into the game, into football.”
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“This is truly a historic day in our company’s history,” added Fanatics founder and CEO Michael Rubin. “Global football is the biggest growth opportunity in sports, and when you combine the power of FIFA with the innovation and entrepreneurial backbone of Fanatics, together we’re poised to elevate storytelling and collectibles around the game in a way that’s never been seen before.”
The announcement of the long-term deal came with the news that the official FIFA World Cup Final press conferences will take place at the third edition of Fanatics Fest this summer on July 17 in New York City, two days before the final across the Hudson River at MetLife Stadium.
Fanatics Fest will also host a massive watch party and will air the FIFA World Cup final live on all screens around the Javits Center for the tens of thousands of expected attendees that day.
The agreement will end FIFA’s longstanding partnership with Panini that began in 1970.
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