2026 World Cup: the art of spin

In this era of sweeping reforms, it’s become a fashionable refrain on the 4th floor of headquarters: "Management is transparent, the unions are exaggerating or even lying." Really?

Let’s take a concrete example: the organization of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, spread across three countries (United States, Canada, Mexico) and featuring 48 teams (compared to 32 teams gathered in Doha and its surrounding area alone in 2022). One of the world’s top sporting events, it has the potential to take on a political dimension this year given US President Donald Trump’s tendency to interfere and steal the limelight.

Is AFP pulling out the stops in terms of coverage? That was a question on the minds of many when management held its Q&A sessions last month as little information had filtered out. Here’s an excerpt from management’s summary of discussions with staff members held on January 14 and 15:

Question: “It seems the coverage of the next football World Cup has already fallen victim to budget cuts?”

Response: “That’s not true.” Or rather “The budget for this World Cup cannot be compared to the previous one for at least two reasons: technology now allows us real-time editing in the cloud, editing will therefore be done from a distance, which gives us significant savings. Also, we will be relying heavily on Getty for photo coverage in the United States and Canada, as our partnership with them allows.”

The figures tell a different story

No budget cuts? And yet… Several days later when staff representatives received the 2026 budget, they discovered some intriguing figures concerning spending on the major sporting events. After receiving clarifications SUD was able to determine that the budget for the 2026 World Cup is 25% less than the 2022 edition!

What explains this reduction? Savings from no longer sending photo editors? Really? But that’s also the case for the Winter Olympics, whose budget has soared.

Using Getty? That will certainly reduce expenses, but it is hard to imagine it will do so by a massive amount.

And how do you explain that the budget for the Winter Olympics is at the same level as the World Cup? And this when the World Cup is being held spread out across a continent and lasts almost six weeks, while the Winter Olympics is a two-and-a-half-week event in northern Italy.

In 2022, AFP allocated 87% more money to its coverage of the FIFA World Cup than to that of the Winter Olympics; a perfectly understandable difference in favor of the most-watched and most-discussed sporting event in the world.

According to information provided by management, this year AFP will be spending 1.5% more on the Winter Olympics than the World Cup!

This is because the budget for the Winter Olympics jumped by 43%, while that of the World Cup fell by approximately 25%.

Management’s communication resembles more spin than substance.

While management’s contention that the two years are difficult to compare, it is still possible nevertheless: how many text reporters does it plan to send to the 2026 World Cup? Is the number increasing, decreasing, or staying the same? On this subject, there’s radio silence.

Reporters stuck in a thick fog

Because, with four and a half months to go before kickoff, the reporters working in the Paris Sports department still don’t know who will be going. Have the plane tickets been booked? The hotels? Local transportation? It’s all a mystery.

Meanwhile their colleagues in other media outlets already know who will be going, covering which games, and sleeping in which hotels.

SUD hopes that the uncertainty surrounding reporters is not shared by management and the Major Events department. Trust is built on transparency, and this is sorely lacking on this issue, as on many others.

SUD calls on management to put its money where its mouth is: send a comparable number of text reporters to the 2026 World Cup and, if possible, several photo editors as well, to ensure that this role loses all interest.

Paris, February 02, 2026

SUD-AFP (Solidarity-Unity-Democracy)