The 2026 FIFA World Cup is being hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Keystone-SDA
The 2026 football World Cup, hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, kicks off in one month. Thanks to FIFA’s headquarters in Zurich, the tournament will also reflect on the Swiss economy.
This content was published on
May 12, 2026 – 10:26
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However, the impact will be less than one might expect from the tournament with the most matches in history.
The World Cup will feature 48 teams competing in 104 matches, far more than the 64 matches of the previous edition. Despite this, economists do not expect a particularly large increase in GDP. This is also due to the fact that FIFA, world football’s governing body, carries less weight than it used to, considering that there are more and more international sporting events. The impact of football is therefore relativised.
According to estimates by the KOF Institute of the federal technology institute (ETH Zurich), the event could raise Swiss GDP 2026 by 0.3/0.4 percentage points. ‘The effects on GDP will probably be within the usual margins,’ KOF economist Alexander Rathke explained to the financial agency AWP.
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One billion francs
Revenues from broadcasting rights are expected to be CHF1 billion ($1.28 billion) higher than those of the World Cup in Qatar in 2022. At the same time, however, the new Club World Cup generated additional revenue in 2025, also of around CHF1 billion, which therefore removes the effects on GDP growth.
The arguments of the BAK Economics institute are similar: if only the expansion of the World Cup were evaluated, the effect would be considerable, economist Alexis Körber pointed out. But FIFA and UEFA, European football’s governing body, have increased their activities in general, including women’s competitions, which diminishes the impact of the men’s World Cup.
The effect of the International Football Federation on GDP is determined by the accounting of its revenues. When FIFA sells broadcasting rights, sponsorship packages, hospitality offers or brand rights, this is treated in the national accounts as the production of a Swiss-based organisation.
Little effect on the real economy
‘This is a global marketing activity carried out by an organisation under Swiss law,” explained Rathke. However, there are few effects on the real economy or the labour market. Both KOF and BAK speak of a static effect. Additional jobs are limited. However, this has a positive effect on tax revenues in the federal government.
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The impact of sporting events on the Swiss economy has, however, increased markedly in recent years, in parallel with the increase in revenue of the sports federations. In 2022, the year of the World Cup, the revenue of FIFA and the Lausanne-based International Olympic Committee (IOC) reached $8 billion (CHF6.25 billion), with about two-thirds due to the football federation. In 2006, the figure was less than $2 billion.
“The current orders of magnitude are problematic from the point of view of economic analysis,” pointed out Alexis Körber of BAK Economics. Without an adjustment, the effect of sports events can partly mask the actual economic development. For several years, the economic analysts and the federal government have therefore also published a GDP “net of sporting events”, in order to make the actual economic development more visible.
Adapted from Italian by AI/ts
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