Episode
How one merger left FIFA with no game to play in India
- Podcast
- Daybreak
- Published
- May 18, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 713
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- https://share.transistor.fm/s/2179c501
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Summary
Three weeks before the FIFA World Cup kicks off in the US, India still does not have a broadcaster for the tournament. JioStar offered $20 million. FIFA said no. Sony did not bid at all. A petition has reached the Delhi High Court asking that matches at least air on Doordarshan. The easy explanation is that FIFA got greedy. But that does not explain how the world's biggest sporting event ends up with no takers in a country with more than 300 million football fans. In today's episode, host Snigdha Sharma looks at what FIFA fundamentally misunderstood about India as a football market. And how one merger gave Reliance enough power that left FIFA with nowhere else to go. Tune in. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.