Set amongst the Miami palm trees, the first match of the new FIFA Club World Cup will kick off on June 14.
Scheduled during a typically quiet period for football fans, the new competition has been stirring up a storm in recent weeks following months of discussion around formatting and rebranding; the addition of more games to an already congested calendar; and speculations around FIFA’s financial motives.
The tournament will accommodate a total of 32 teams from across five continents, providing sponsoring partners with ample opportunity to ramp up anticipation, perhaps none more so than global broadcaster DAZN, which will stream all 63 games.
Pete Oliver, CEO of Growth Markets at DAZN, spoke to Insider Sport and explained why the global streaming platform is confident it will be able to garner the support of football fans across the globe for the competition.
“From a sporting perspective, the Club World Cup is the first real opportunity for clubs to claim to be the best team in the world,” he said.
“When domestic seasons end and, when broadcasters and brands are actively seeking quality inventory, we have a premium global competition, no different from the World Cup or European Championships. For the fans, it’s a month-long global tournament at the end of the domestic season, with the world’s best players competing against each other. What’s not to get excited about?”
Ensuring a UK audience
With names such as Real Madrid, FC Bayern Munich and Manchester City featuring in the inaugural edition of the competition, the draw factor is certainly there. The group stage will also feature high-profile matches too, with Atletico Madrid vs. newly-crowned Champions League winner Paris Saint-Germain, and Manchester City vs. Juventus.
Alongside City is Chelsea FC as the only two English teams competing in the Club World Cup. To ensure DAZN is capturing the eyes of a key football market such as England, the platform agreed a sublicensing deal with 5 for 23 fixtures free-to-air in the UK.
Oliver stated 5 games will help DAZN capture and engage a “larger and more diverse audience” and help the streaming platform gain greater accessibility for its coverage of the competition.
He also highlighted how the free-to-air coverage in the UK will also help attract non-football fans to watch the Club World Cup, enabling DAZN to build “long-term equity in the property”.
He continued: “The competition offers huge commercial and editorial value, and 5 is investing heavily in live sport as part of its wider programming strategy. Their commitment to promote their tournament, alongside a young and diverse audience base, made them a strong strategic fit.”
A global content strategy
Essential to any modern day football broadcast comprises two major components; information and entertainment.
DAZN revealed its line-up of pundits on June 11, featuring names familiar globally, such as Ronaldo Nazário, Sami Khedira, Christian Vieri and John Obi Mikel.
These former players will also be joined by football reporters like Fabrizio Romano, with commentary featuring Conor McNamara, Andros Townsend, Brad Friedel and more.
As this is the first edition of a newly rebranded competition, it enables DAZN to establish a status quo of how stories, production and coverage is presented to a global audience to keep them engaged from the first to the last whistle.
Oliver revealed fans can expect a “digital-first fan-centric experience”, one that aims to evolve football broadcasts and provide instant content to meet the demands of the ever-growing digital-native fan.
“We will leverage the platform to deliver comprehensive live coverage, real-time highlights, multilingual commentary, and deep tactical analysis – all delivered by some of the world’s most iconic pundits and talent,” he said.
There is also a unique opportunity for fans, particularly in Europe, to learn about teams from across the globe and watch first-time-ever matchups, like Borussia Dortmund vs. South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns.
“We’re focused on centering our storytelling around clubs and talent from outside the traditional European elite
As much of the attention is driven commercially and financially in Europe, it is understandable historically significant teams like Boca Juniors and Flamengo – both competing at the Club World Cup – are often neglected from the minds of Europeans.
For DAZN as the Club World Cup global broadcaster, it will be its duty to inform audiences of the clubs and players in a storytelling format that does not just engage the European fans, but those across all continents.
“We’re focused on centering our storytelling around clubs and talent from outside the traditional European elite, making this more than just a tournament, but something with which fans around the globe can resonate.”
What this means for DAZN
As Oliver highlighted before, it has an extensive portfolio of football league rights across the world, befitting of a Club World Cup global broadcaster.
A live broadcaster of the Bundesliga in Germany, Serie A in Italy and formerly in France with Ligue 1, DAZN also holds rights to live stream football leagues outside Europe, including the prospering Saudi Pro League and Japan’s J-League.
While reports suggest Apple TV could not reach a deal with FIFA to be the Club World Cup global broadcaster, DAZN recognised an opportunity that will enable it to expand its footprint across several high-profile markets, and those the platform has yet to reach.
“We are already seeing evidence of this increased brand recognition,” said Oliver, who was enthused regarding the prospect of potentially acquiring new subscribers from new and existing markets.
He said: “The tournament will introduce DAZN to new markets where we’re either entering or expanding. In that sense, it’s both a broadcast product and an opportunity to help us grow our global business and become recognised as the global home of football.”
While stamping its ground as the “global home of football” may sound like a lofty goal in a sporting broadcast landscape that is quickly becoming highly competitive, opportunities like the Club World Cup present new opportunities that traditional football leagues do not offer.
Football leagues like the Premier League have welcomed streaming platforms such as Amazon Prime Video in the past, they still operate from a traditional TV broadcast standpoint and agree these deals from a country-to-country basis, with no sole global broadcaster responsible for all live broadcasts of any said football league.
DAZN finds itself now in a unique, possibly fruitful position, where it is accessible throughout the majority of the world, due to it being a direct-to-consumer streaming service and being the sole global Club World Cup broadcaster to show all 63 games.
For the next month, DAZN will be at the centrepoint of the footballing world in a bid to provide a viewing experience for football fans from all corners of the globe for a new competition many were initially sceptical about… it could make or break the competition for years to come.
