Inside FIFA 2025 Club World Cup Operations With FIFA's Oscar Sanchez, HBS's Stefan Wistuba

Inside FIFA 2025 Club World Cup Operations With FIFA's Oscar Sanchez, HBS's Stefan Wistuba Taking place across the U.S., the event equals the 2022 World Cup in number of matches By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director

Tuesday, June 17, 2025 - 9:29 am

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The 2025 FIFA Club World Cup kicked off this past weekend, along with a massive effort that, in terms of matches, is as large as the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar: 32 clubs facing off in 12 stadiums across 11 U.S. cities. Historically, in the year before a World Cup, an event called the Confederations Cup has served as a bit of a warmup in the main event's host nation. This year, though, the effort is different and much more ambitious.

The FIFA Club World Cup 2025 is a historic tournament, and we are treating it as such, says Oscar Sanchez, head of host broadcast production, FIFA. It is not a test for 2026; we are going all-in with the largest production for a club competition ever.

The footprint is massive, he adds, noting that FIFA aims to give fans the opportunity to enjoy a high-quality product through the feeds provided to UK-based streaming platform DAZN. The production format is also high-quality, with 1080p HDR (HLG) production of all matches.

MetLife Stadium in New Jersey is home to the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup International Broadcast Coordination Center. There are 135 production cabins onsite, handling a wide variety of functions.

DAZN is our official broadcaster for the tournament around the world and is here with us at the International Broadcast Coordination Centre in MetLife Stadium, says Sanchez. They have a robust operation with unilateral coverage onsite for all matches and, in multiple games, have unilateral activations for their main territories, like Germany, Japan, Spain, and Middle East.

Host Broadcast Services is once again playing a large role on the production side for FIFA. According to HBS Director, FIFA Projects, Stefan Wistuba, for the multilateral production at the 12 FIFA Club World Cup stadiums (two are in Orlando), HBS is working with Dome Productions, EMG-Gravity, Game Creek Video, and NEP.

The center of operations, the International Broadcast Coordination Centre (IBCC), is located at New Jersey's MetLife Stadium. The compound for the multilateral facilities based there and cabin space for DAZN provides 1,8009 square meters of raw indoor space - with a total of 135 cabins.

According to Wistuba, the IBCC manages the master-control room (MCR), quality control, the commentary switching center (CSC), cable interconnection room (CIR), live-entertainment galleries, FIFA video operations rooms (VORs), football operations center (FOC), and production, digital, engineering, and power operations/services.

During the event, a total of 220 HBS staffers will be based at the IBCC and the broadcast compound at MetLife Stadium. Additionally, for non-live content and postproduction, 50 staffers are working remotely at a non-live center in Paris.

The fully redundant and diverse 10-Gbps contribution network connecting the stadiums and the IBCC is provided by Verizon. All feeds produced at the stadiums, Wistuba explains, are contributing to the IBCC via a dedicated broadcast SMPTE ST 2110 redundant contribution network using JPEG-XS compression toward the MCR, for further distribution to rightholders either onsite as SDI handoff over satellite distribution or streaming for offsite distribution worldwide.

FIFA and HBS unilateral productions support DAZN with the help of Game Creek Video and Live Media Group, all supported by crewing provider Program Productions PPI.

Match Coverage Group Phase matches will be covered by up to 28 cameras. We want to give audiences a comprehensive view of the action on the pitch and at the stadium, Sanchez says. For the opening match, a helicopter was used and will be used for other selected matches in the Group Phase.

From the Round of 16 on, an enhanced camera plan of up to 34 cameras will be deployed, he adds. Enhancements will include additional [super-slo-mo cameras], Ultramotion cameras, pole cameras, Steadicams, and additional Cine-Style cameras. Once again, a helicopter will be deployed for selected matches during the Round of 16, and there will also be a helicopter for the Semifinals and Final [which will all be played at MetLife Stadium].

A cablecam will be deployed on all matches, Wistuba says, noting, The Final will have a second point-to-point cable camera, providing a unique moving main-camera view, which is a first for a FIFA tournament.

Everyone involved, Sanchez says, is looking forward to delivering a great story for the fans around the world with a very reliable and consistent feed showcasing the great environment that happens in the stadium. Our task is to provide to DAZN and its sublicensees with the best coverage so they can do their job and amplify the tournament in all their platforms.

While it is true that there will be a lot of learnings for next year, he continues, that is not our main goal for this first edition of the FIFA Club World Cup.

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2025/06/17/inside-fifa-2025-club-world-cup...
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