Will Fox have to fight tooth and nail to keep the World Cup in the future? Fox platforms are gearing up for the 2026 men’s edition of the soccer tournament, which begins in June, but the company will need to have a good plan in place to ensure that the world’s most popular tournament doesn’t go elsewhere by the time it rolls around again in four years. As its foray into sports broadcasting is increasingly looking like a cohesive strategy, rather than just a series of one-off larks, Netflix executives are now openly discussing the fact that they want to be in the conversation when those rights are being negotiated.

Netflix vice president of sports Gabe Spitzer joined The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand for an episode of his podcast to discuss a wide range of sports-related topics. During the conversation, Spitzer said Netflix “will want to have a conversation” about the rights to the 2030 World Cup, which will be held in Morocco, Portugal, and Spain.

Fox has held the English-language broadcast rights to the World Cup since 2015, but its deal with FIFA ends after this year’s tournament. That leaves an opportunity for Netflix and other platforms to swoop in and snag the rights with a compelling offer.

Netflix already has a growing relationship with FIFA to build upon. The streamer has acquired the rights to the 2027 and 2031 Women’s World Cups in the United States and Canada, and its global availability could be a big draw for FIFA as it considers bids for the 2030 rights.

From Netflix’s perspective, the World Cup represents the platonic ideal of the kind of sporting events it wants to pursue. The World Cup is a huge viewing event, but it isn’t an annual commitment to a season-long inventory of games — something Netflix officials still insist they don’t want.

FIFA will probably begin getting phone calls about the rights to World Cups in 2030 and beyond as soon as the 2026 trophy is awarded — if not sooner. Fans can expect Netflix to be on the other side of one of those calls, and the streamer may have a potent case to make that it should be the host of future World Cup tournaments.

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