The FIFA World Cup™ Trophy

The FIFA World Cup™ Trophy

The World Cup Trophy, one of the most recognizable trophies in the world, dates from 1970 and was crafted by Italian designer Silvio Gazzaniga. It is 36cm high, made of solid 18 carat gold and weighs 6.175kg. The year and name of each FIFA World Cup winner since 1974 is engraved at the base of the trophy. The trophy, along with a number of other FIFA marks, is registered under WIPO’s Madrid System for the International Registration of Marks, a cost-effective means of registering and subsequently managing trademark rights in multiple countries.

Football, FIFA and intellectual property

Football, one of the world's favorite sports, has over 240 million players in 1.4 million teams in 300,000 clubs across the world.

The FIFA World Cup™ tournament is the world's largest single-sport event and one of the most effective global marketing platforms.

FIFA’s comprehensive global rights protection program is underpinned by the registration of all official FIFA marks. This enables it to finance and stage its 12 major international tournaments including the World Cup.

FIFA right holders are guaranteed exclusive use of the official marks and an exclusive marketing association with the 2010 FIFA World Cup™. FIFA believes that, “without this exclusivity, attracting official sponsors for the event would be extremely difficult.” For them, “any unauthorized use of the official marks by another party therefore not only undermines the integrity of the FIFA World Cup™ and its marketing program, but also puts the interests of the worldwide football community at stake.”

Almost all of FIFA’s revenue is derived from the sale of commercial and broadcasting rights. Marketing and TV rights for the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ are reported to have been sold for US$3.2 billion (30 percent more than in 2006). Some 63 percent of the total income was derived from the sale of broadcasting rights.

FIFA is a non-profit organization. Over 75 percent of its income is directly invested in the organization of competitions (including youth and women’s competitions) and development projects. It is also used to financially support FIFA members (6 confederations and 208 associations), many of whom would not be able to operate without this support.

For the 2010 tournament, FIFA and the Local Organizing Committee launched, for the first time, a ticket fund through which 120,000 complimentary tickets were allocated to residents of South Africa. The initiative was designed to make 2010 FIFA World Cup™ matches more accessible to those who do not ordinarily have the means to purchase tickets. Tickets were awarded to individuals who had actively participated in staging the event, such as construction workers who built the stadiums and others who had contributed to social development activities.

One of FIFA’s aims has been to ensure that Africa as a whole benefits from the first FIFA World Cup™ held on African soil. To this end, it launched a range of continent-wide initiatives, such as "Win in Africa with Africa" which, with a budget of US$70 million, is designed to leave a lasting legacy in Africa. The initiative involved building football pitches; providing equipment; offering training programs for coaches, referees, managers, and sports executives; and running courses in sports medicine and media.

First televised in 1954, the FIFA World Cup™ is now the most widely viewed and followed sporting event in the world. The closing ceremony of the FIFA 2010 World Cup™ was broadcast live in 215 countries to a record audience of over 700 million viewers. The cumulative audience of all matches of the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ is estimated to have been over 26 billion. Figures for this year’s tournament will be available at the end of the year.

Millions of people also followed the action online. FIFA’s website, FIFA.com, recorded 150 million individual users, more than triple the traffic recorded during the 2006 event. With some 6.4 billion page views recorded, the website saw some 1 million hits per second. More than 220,000 followers to FIFA Twitter accounts were also recorded.

For the first time in FIFA World Cup™ history, the 31-day event was transmitted live at official “Fan Fest” sites in 16 cities around the world (10 in South Africa as well as in Berlin, Mexico City, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, and Sydney). This enabled some 6 million fans without stadium tickets to savor the World Cup experience and follow the live action of the 64 matches broadcast on giant screens.

This huge logistical operation was coordinated by FIFA which, in addition to providing technical infrastructure, is reported to have provided some 50,000 square meters of official World Cup design materials to decorate the venues. The cost of organizing the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ is an estimated US$1.3 billion. This is all made possible thanks to FIFA’s judicious management of its official trademarks and other intellectual property assets.

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1 The LBW rule is designed to prevent the batsman from using his body to stop the ball from hitting the wicket (and avoid being bowled out) rather than using the bat to do so. An umpire will make an LBW ruling under a range of circumstances and primarily when the ball strikes the batsman's body (usually the leg) when it would otherwise have continued on to hit the batsman's wicket (the stumps and bails).
2 PCT – Patent Cooperation Treaty administered by WIPO