McDonald’s Is Leaving the World Cup. What Are Sponsors Really Buying?

The decision raises a question every sports partnership should answer: what can a brand build with the rights it buys?

By Jesús Arroyo | Sport. Culture. Brands.

Thirty-two years is a long time to keep showing up.

According to Business Insider, McDonald’s will end its FIFA World Cup sponsorship when its current agreement expires this year. The report also notes that the company’s latest World Cup marketing effort fell short of its expectations.

That is a significant departure from one of the biggest stages in sports.

It also creates an opportunity to examine how sponsorships earn their place in a marketing strategy.

When a brand buys access to a sport, what exactly is it buying—and what does it need to do next?

A sponsorship is a starting point

A rights agreement gives a brand permission to participate.

Depending on the deal, that might include trademarks, content, hospitality, player access, promotional opportunities, or space inside the venue.

Those assets have potential. The work is turning them into something people care about.

Consider two hypothetical restaurant partnerships.

One puts a logo on a screen during a game.

Another connects a memorable moment on the court to an offer fans can redeem the following day, supports it with player content, and brings the experience into participating restaurants.

Both involve visibility. The second creates a path from the sporting moment to customer action.

It also creates more questions worth measuring: Did fans redeem the offer? Were they existing customers? Did they return? Did participating locations benefit?

The agreement opens the door. The activation gives people a reason to walk through it.

Every brand needs a different return

A growing business entering a new market may need recognition above everything else.

An established brand may be trying to increase purchase frequency, reach a particular community, introduce a product, or strengthen customer preference.

Those objectives require different partnerships—and different definitions of success.

That distinction should shape the proposal before a price is attached.

A sponsorship designed to build awareness should explain which audience the brand needs to reach and why the property can reach it effectively.

A partnership designed to drive visits needs a credible mechanism for getting people into a location.

A relationship designed to strengthen loyalty needs repeated experiences that customers value.

The same package cannot be equally effective at every objective.

Teams should sell an idea with a business purpose

For teams and leagues, the commercial opportunity starts with understanding the prospective partner.

What is the business trying to accomplish? Which customers matter most? What makes the sports audience relevant? What can the organization deliver consistently?

Those answers should lead the creative work.

A bank could help small business owners in the fan community build useful connections. A healthcare company could support accessible community programming. A restaurant could become part of the game-day ritual.

Each concept needs a practical plan: who participates, how the experience works, what the partner contributes, and how progress will be evaluated.

That takes more work than placing assets into sponsorship tiers.

It also gives the salesperson a stronger conversation than a list of logo placements.

Fan attention comes with responsibility

Sports organizations have something brands value deeply: relationships that people choose to maintain.

Fans return through disappointing seasons, roster changes, and difficult losses. They build family traditions around teams. They carry that identity into their daily lives.

A sponsor enters that relationship as a guest.

The best partnerships respect the setting. They contribute to the experience, understand its customs, and give fans something useful, entertaining, or meaningful.

That can be a better arrival experience at the arena. Access to a player. Support for a youth program. An offer that fits an existing routine.

The test is straightforward:

Would fans notice—and miss—what the partner contributes if it disappeared?

That is a useful creative standard before any campaign launches.

Measurement should begin before the announcement

Sponsorship evaluation becomes difficult when the parties never agree on what success means.

Before signing, a brand and property should establish a small number of objectives, the information available to assess them, and who is responsible for collecting it.

Some results can be observed directly, such as offer redemptions, qualified inquiries, or event participation.

Others require research, including changes in awareness, consideration, or perceptions. Longer-term effects need time and a realistic assessment of what the sponsorship can reasonably influence.

No single metric captures the entire relationship.

But a clear measurement plan helps both sides make better decisions during the agreement. It creates room to adjust an activation, improve distribution, or stop repeating something that is underperforming.

Renewal discussions become more productive when both sides have been learning throughout the season.

Renewal is another strategic decision

A long relationship carries history, familiarity, and operational knowledge. Those are valuable.

Its next chapter still needs a purpose.

Business priorities change. Audiences change. A partnership that served one objective well may need a different structure to support the next one.

For sponsors, that means being willing to reconsider where and how they participate.

For sports organizations, it means earning renewal through ideas, execution, and evidence—not assuming that the previous agreement explains the next one.

McDonald’s departure makes that conversation visible at a global level. The same conversation belongs in a meeting room with a local team and a regional business.

The strongest sponsorship proposal can explain what the brand will help create, why fans will care, and how both sides will know it is working.

That is where the next play begins.

Source: Lara O’Reilly’s reporting in Business Insider, published October 28, 2026. The sponsorship frameworks and hypothetical examples above are The Marketing Play’s analysis.