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00:00I am here with the president of FIFA Gianni Infantino. It's great to see you here. Welcome and I think
00:05it shows you know how critical sport and especially FIFA in the World Cup are playing in a role in
00:13the outlook for the U.S. economy right now. Is that true?
00:15Yeah that's true. Hello first of all and it's a great pleasure really to be to be here to be
00:20here with you as well. It is I mean it's quite it's quite incredible the weight and the importance that
00:28the soccer or football as we call it has gotten in America but all over the world and so it's
00:36kind of important for me and for us to be here.
00:39So right so we were just talking about so tickets have gone on sale. There have been two I guess
00:44drafts maybe one one more final one in case you didn't get tickets but how demand has been absolutely off
00:51the charts. What are the number the latest numbers look like?
00:53Well it's absolutely incredible. We sold or we received requests for over 500 million tickets, 508 million to be precise
01:03for around 7 million tickets that we have on sale.
01:07508 million tickets?
01:09Ticket requests for 7 million.
01:127 million tickets.
01:13Have you ever seen anything like that?
01:13Never ever. I mean just to tell you in 100 years of World Cup, the first World Cup was in
01:181930 so almost 100 years ago, 96 years ago. In 100 years of World Cup FIFA sold less than 50
01:26million tickets in total. And now in four weeks we got requests for like a thousand years of World Cups.
01:32Why is that?
01:32It's incredible. I think it is because it's America right, the United States, Canada, Mexico, it's North America. This is
01:39certainly one element which is very important.
01:42But we received ticket requests from over 200 countries in the world so everyone wants to come here and everyone
01:49wants to be part of something special. I think people generally they want to experience some emotions and be part
01:57of something happy and feel something special.
02:02So all these requests coming from all over the world show that, well, people want to come and they want
02:07to celebrate and they want to have fun and they want to enjoy and they are all a little bit
02:13maybe tired and fed up of all this negativity that is portrayed the whole time, right?
02:18Yeah.
02:18We need some good news and some good things.
02:20Everybody likes, everyone likes sports and especially soccer globally.
02:23But what does that mean for ticket prices?
02:26Because, I mean, with such high demand, the prices have been astronomical.
02:32Yes, the prices, you know, have been, I mean, they have been fixed.
02:36But then in the U.S. in particular, there is this thing called dynamic pricing, meaning the price will go
02:42up or down.
02:44You are allowed as well to resell your tickets on official platforms, secondary markets.
02:49So their prices as well will go up.
02:52That's part of the market that we are in.
02:56And obviously, prices for some matches will go up.
02:59The price for other matches will remain.
03:00But isn't that a problem for you if they're so expensive?
03:02Because you don't want to alienate your fans who can't afford to be there.
03:07Well, it's not a problem in the sense that the demand is there.
03:11I mean, in 77 out of 104 matches, we have 104 matches in total, which are, if you look at
03:18the audience figures,
03:19I mean, 6 billion people will watch these 104 matches, are like 104 Super Bowls in one month, right?
03:25So it's the equivalent of a Super Bowl, something special.
03:29Obviously, the price is a consequence of that.
03:33And 77 out of these 104 matches have received requests for over 1 million tickets.
03:40Every match is already sold out.
03:42We keep some tickets back for some last-minute sales, of course, but every match is sold out.
03:48We have as well $60 tickets for some like ones from the first match to the last match.
03:55But what is more important, I think, in all of this discussion is what is happening with this money, right?
04:01Because FIFA is, many people don't know that, it's a non-profit organization, right?
04:06So every dollar that comes in is reinvesting the game in our 211 countries all over the world,
04:12which otherwise would not have the possibility to organize football or soccer.
04:15I've seen revenue estimates of around $10 billion. Is that your expectation?
04:19It would be more than that.
04:21More than that?
04:21Yeah, 11, maybe even a little bit higher.
04:25How much of that will go toward the U.S. economy, toward sort of lasting improvement and stimulus in the
04:32U.S.?
04:32Well, only in the U.S., the economic impact is of around $30 billion generally with the World Cup
04:39in terms of tourism, catering, security investments and so on.
04:44$30 billion, around 185,000 full-time jobs created only for the World Cup.
04:51So just imagine that the accredited personnel, so the people who have some function,
04:56from the players to the caterers or security people, there are 385,000 media people,
05:03385,000 people who have an accreditation during the World Cup, volunteers.
05:08So it moves a lot in the economy.
05:12The government will generate, in terms of direct revenues, around $3.5 billion at least.
05:20So it has a big impact, but I hope that the impact will not just be limited to the World
05:26Cup, but will be for the future as well.
05:30So you mentioned the U.S. government actually stands to gain, and I was going to ask you about that,
05:33because you have spent a lot of time working, in particular, with this administration and with the president.
05:38I think you've developed a nice relationship with the president himself.
05:41Why is that important?
05:43Well, it's very important for an event of this magnitude, where you have, you know, 7 million people going into
05:51stadiums,
05:52where you have maybe 20, 30 million people coming to the U.S. on holidays to celebrate,
05:58where you have 6 billion people watching.
06:00I mean, during 39 days, the duration of the World Cup, every news in every country of the world will
06:07start with what is happening at the World Cup.
06:10So to organize such a big-scale event with fans coming from 200 countries in the world,
06:16you need to, of course, collaborate very, very closely with the government.
06:20It's impossible otherwise.
06:21We're showing the video of you actually giving him the peace prize that you presented him with at the Trump
06:28-Kennedy Center.
06:29And you received some blowback for that, that you were politicizing, you know, the World Cup and FIFA
06:37by cozying up so much to the administration.
06:40Well, I don't think I'm cozying up or we are cozying up.
06:43But when it comes to peace and the peace prize in particular,
06:47everyone who does something for peace needs to be rewarded for that.
06:53and President Trump and his administration have done and are doing a lot to get peace around the world.
07:00And they have to be, this has to be recognized.
07:02Whatever you think about politics, this has nothing to do with politics.
07:06It has to do with peace.
07:07And every peace effort has to be supported.
07:11For us, you know, football unites the world.
07:14This is our motto, our slogan.
07:16And you cannot have unity if you don't have peace.
07:20But the unity can bring peace as well.
07:23And finally, you know, soccer in this country, obviously it's been growing fast,
07:27but it's not as big as it has been globally.
07:29Certainly nothing like the NFL that we have in this country.
07:32What are your expectations for what this might do more permanently to the sport?
07:37It has to transform the sport in America and all over the world.
07:41This country has to be, and has to become engaged really with the sport.
07:45It's not possible that the United States of America,
07:48which are the number one country in the world for kind of everything you do,
07:53that you are satisfied with being, I don't know, the number 20 in the number one sport in the world.
07:57You have to have the ambition of becoming number one as well.
08:00So I really hope, and I count, and part of my job is going in this direction,
08:05that we will create here one of the top, top, top leagues in the world,
08:09having the best players in the world as well,
08:12coming from here, from this country, coming from all over the world,
08:16and shining from here into the entire world.
08:19So we will conquer the world from America with soccer.
08:23Yeah, very bullish.
08:23But we do have Messi, so that's a good start.
08:26Absolutely.
08:26Gianni, thank you very much for taking the time here.
08:28Thank you.
08:29At the World Liberty Forum, where Gianni and I are doing an onstage conversation a little bit later.
08:33The president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino.
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