September 30 – FIFA has partnered with international social issue campaigners, Global Citizen, to produce the first ever World Cup final half-time show in July 2026 at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
Global Citizen have three policy pillars; fighting poverty, equity between people whatever their gender or religion, and battling against climate crisis that hits the world’s poorest people the hardest.
To do this they have built campaigns around harnessing the world’s leading music artists to drive awareness and change, predominantly through concerts. Tickets to the concerts are ‘earned’ by music fans who get involved with campaigns.
The social issues that the partnership with FIFA will focus on are ending extreme poverty and providing millions of children with access to education. Action against climate change is a tricky one for FIFA who have major world polluters as their sponsorship partners, and carbon fuelled wealth as their hosts for World Cups in 2022 and again 2034.
The four-year partnership covers the 2026 final but will start with the expanded 32-team Club World Cup in the US in summer 2025, which will see Global Citizen run promotions for fans to get involved with their campaign issues and earn tickets to matches. More details on the campaign initiatives and how fans can get involved are to be announced.
“Through this partnership, FIFA and Global Citizen will bring together the worlds of sport and entertainment to actively contribute to a better world. We are committing to a series of joint activities that will help promote access to football and engage fans of the sport in an effort to create positive change in their local communities,” said FIFA president Gianni Infantino.
The announcement was made at this weekend’s annual Global Citizen Festival in Central Park in New York. As part of the day FIFA unveiled the 11 US cities that will host matches at the 2025 Club World Cup.
“Five billion people around the world engaged with the last FIFA World Cup. Together with FIFA, we have a remarkable opportunity to broaden our movement of action takers,” said Global Citizen CEO Hugh Evans.
Global Citizen says it has “deployed $43.6 billion in the past decade, impacting nearly 1.3 billion lives”. Its target for the next five year, which covers the FIFA partnership, is to build their social movement to 50 million people and “positively impact” the lives of a further 650 million people.
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