Football Summit 2025: FIFA's Oscar Sanchez talks career progression, World Cup preparations and more By Jo Ruddock
Friday, March 21, 2025 - 08:05
Print This Story
From being in front of the camera hosting entertainment shows in his native Costa Rica, to spending more than a decade at Concacaf, latterly as director broadcast operations, EP and media distribution, Oscar Sanchez's path to his current role at FIFA has certainly been varied. But this variety provided essential experiences and learnings that are relevant to his current role as head of broadcast production, he told the audience at Football Summit yesterday (20 March).
I was at Concacaf for 14 years and it was a great experience, he said. Moving to FIFA, I think I have an advantage, because having worked at Concacaf before you understand how a sports league or sports federation works, which is very important. Then the other part is you become scrappy. Scrappy for some is a word that doesn't have positive connotations, but to me, it's very good, because you learn how to do things with less resources. For instance, I'm not ashamed to say I have lost two games in my life that went black completely. One was because the uplink truck never made it to Guatemala, so we were not able to make it to America. I said at that time, this is the last time that happens to me. So we started doing IP, very early, in 2017. When it worked and the team in Miami could see the signal, it was like magic to me.
Given that much of Sanchez's work took place in parts of the Caribbean and the Americas where connectivity could not be guranateed, this approach raised some eyebrows.
People said to me, you're crazy - in all those beautiful islands that people go to for vacations, but never for work, you're never going to be able to find connectivity'. Last year, we did over 200 games with IP, using everything from TVU and LiveU to Haivision, whatever was available. And we had fewer issues than we had with satellite, particularly when it came to transporting kit between islands. So I learned a lot..
For Sanchez two major events are currently consuming much of his time, the first Club World Cup, set to take place in the US in June and July, and the 2026 World Cup, which will be hosted by Canada, Mexico and the US.
The Club World Cup 2025 is massive. It's 64 games in a very short time across 12 venues in the United States. It's very big, not only in terms of the production that we're putting together, but also in terms of the passion that the fans are going to show. It's less than three months away and we're excited to be showing that to the world.
In terms of the production setup, FIFA is opting for a traditional approach. There will be 11 production teams one based in each city (two stadiums in Orlando are being used), he explained. Then we are going to have an IBCC a smaller version of an IBC at MetLife Stadium in New York, with a more limited presence of media partners on site. From there we'll create and distribute the world feed and make sure that everyone gets that. We're also testing a couple of things related to 2026.
About the World Cup, Sanchez said 2025 is massive, but 2026 is humongous. it's 16 venues, 104 games and there won't be a day without a game until 27 days after the beginning of the tournament. We're going to have our IBC at Dallas. It's a fantastic place, and we're excited to be there. We're going to have 60 production crews based in each city, we're not going to be moving them around, but the replay operations and camera shading are being done from the IBC, so we're working a very complex setup. It's going to be an interesting one, because it demands a lot of from the people and it demands a lot from the suppliers that we're working with and engaging with. The USA, Mexico and Canada are very different, very diverse, and you need to plan now to be ready to deliver what you need to deliver.
After six months with FIFA, Sanchez continues to learn: I think one of the things that I have found here is that this is a service position. I would love to say that I'm creative, that I can tell any of the directors what they need to do, but I don't do that. My position is to make sure, just like the rest of the philosophy of the organisation, that we're serving correctly those who are buying our rights.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
05/06/2026
New leadership of Technology Systems Division at Rohde & Schwarz On July 1, 2026, Hansj rg Herrbold and Andreas H gele will take over as Executive Vice Presid...
05/06/2026
Hitachi and Intel announced a strategic collaboration to explore opportunities t...
05/06/2026
MRI-Simmons and S&P Global Mobility are expanding advanced audience capabilities...
05/06/2026
New Nielsen data shows insurance ad spend grew 11%, while consumers remain highl...
05/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
05/06/2026
ASG Promotes Joe Marchitto to Western Regional CTO
Brie Clayton June 5, 2026
0 Comments
Appointment to Support Engineering Alignment and Client Experi...
05/06/2026
Stargate Studios Colombia Uses DaVinci Resolve Studio for Vertical Microdramas
Brie Clayton June 5, 2026
0 Comments
End to end post in one platform al...
05/06/2026
People Need to Come First When We Use AI
Andy Marken June 5, 2026
0 Comments
It's just surviving. Life's very existence requires destruction....
05/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
05/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
05/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
05/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
05/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
05/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
05/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
05/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
05/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
05/06/2026
Frequency, the engine powering many of the world's leading streaming television channels, today announced the launch of In-Scene Advertising, a new monetiza...
05/06/2026
Berklee Study Reveals Video Has Become Essential to Music Careers Survey findings show social platforms have become the primary source of music for video cont...
05/06/2026
RT Radio 1 Folk Awards to take place on Tuesday 10th November 2026, Vicar Street, Dublin
Moya Brennan, D nal Lunny, Mary Black and Christy Moore among previou...
04/06/2026
Sony Electronics is introducing the SRG-AS10, a 4K 60p-compatible PTZ auto-frami...
04/06/2026
This recent grad from Spring, TX, led creative-video output for the Aggies' men's basketball team last season and has been producing video and creating ...
04/06/2026
For the first time at a women's golf major, every player in the field will r...
04/06/2026
Three Panasonic PT-RQ45 40,000-lumen 3-Chip DLP projectors made their first live...
04/06/2026
Bitmovin and Akamai have announced a collaboration with NRJ Group, a French mult...
04/06/2026
Telestream will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth N7952), demonstrating media work...
04/06/2026
Sony has announced the development of RIALTO 65, a 65mm format image sensor block for the VENICE 2 digital cinema camera, targeting release in the first half of...
04/06/2026
KOKUSAI DENKI Electric America will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth N8025, June ...
04/06/2026
Bell Media's TSN and RDS are the exclusive Canadian broadcasters of FIFA Wor...
04/06/2026
The Challenge: Receiving Heavy Media Files From Road Games Quickly and ReliablyT...
04/06/2026
MASV, a managed file transfer platform used in broadcast and live sports product...
04/06/2026
NESN has announced the appointment of Fahad Haider as Vice President of Operations and Engineering. Haider returns to NESN, where he previously served as Vice P...
04/06/2026
David J. Halberstam, who spent almost 50 years in sports as a broadcaster and an executive, died June 2 after a years-long battle with brain cancer.
Over his l...
04/06/2026
Although collegiate production programs are tasked with delivering high-quality ...
04/06/2026
California studio, two production trucks, global distribution system are combine...
04/06/2026
New global program empowers and supports storytellers through scriptwriting course and access to industry experts
TikTok and Sundance Institute today announce...
04/06/2026
Steinberg DAWs now boast in-depth Tonalic integration
Celemony's innovative virtual session musician plug-in has just received an update that brings ARA...
04/06/2026
Get Hands-On With Over 20 Mic Brands
GearExpo UK is fast approaching, and if you've been looking for a chance to check out some new mics, then you'r...
04/06/2026
Combos feature new Amplifier Intelligence engine
Positive Grid's latest release sees the company introduce two new combo amplifiers that promise to offe...
04/06/2026
Is Your Job Making You Work this June?
4 June, 2026
Media releases
SBS Launches the World Cup Watchers' Rights Association to Stand Up For Australians&...
04/06/2026
Statement regarding unauthorised use of SBS logos on third party social content
4 June, 2026
Media releases
SBS has become aware of social media posts in c...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Bitmovin, a leading provider of video streaming infrastructure, and Akamai, the cybersecurity and cloud computing company that powers and protects business onli...
04/06/2026
American Underground (AU), the Startup Hub of the South and a community of mor...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
Football Summit 2025: FIFA's Oscar Sanchez talks career progression, World Cup preparations and more By Jo Ruddock 
