It is widely accepted that football is the most popular sport worldwide. But how do we know this? The research carried out by FIFA Marketing provides us with the facts and figures we need in order to demonstrate the power of football in every corner of the globe.

In recent years, FIFA has developed a comprehensive market research programme, providing insights and tracking trends in up to 15 markets worldwide. This allows FIFA and its Commercial Affiliates to track the success of FIFA events around the world as well as the performance of the Commercial Affiliates’ brands.

The research programme has three main components:

Consumer Research
A series of surveys conducted to better understand where and why people love football and FIFA’s events. Depending on the project, the scope of surveys may vary from analysing a specific question in the host market of the next FIFA World Cup™ to conducting a nationally representative survey on a global scale.

Event Research
FIFA’s events attract millions of visitors every year. When looking at ways to improve our tournaments, the feedback of those who have attended a match or visited a FIFA Fan Fest™ are highly valuable. For different events, different research methodologies are applied in order to best capture the fans’ experience.

Media Research
FIFA’s media research looks at two key dimensions: the presence of FIFA’s events and Commercial Affiliates in the media, and the way football fans around the world follow and engage with the game. FIFA regularly monitors media coverage around its events, most notably TV broadcasts. Equally important to FIFA are the fans’ voices and how the organisation is portrayed on social media networks.