McDonald’s is set to pull its 32-year sponsorship with the FIFA World Cup. The big arches has been synonymous with the biggest sporting competition in the world, but is set to separate, arguing that their marketing around the last World Cup didn’t meet expectations.
In McDonald’s Q2 2026 earnings call, chief financial officer Ian Borden said that while the World Cup campaign “provided a lift to the business and generated excellent system excitement, [it] underperformed versus our expectations.”
He also said that McDonald’s has to be “really careful about how many borrowed equities” it puts on the calendar.
“In many cases, a borrowed equity would be whether you’re doing something with World Cup or you’re doing something with Minecraft or Grinch. There’s certainly a role for those, you’re not going to promo your way to long-term value creation,” he said.
“You’re always going to be having to comp over that. The more fundamental way that you drive long-term value creation is through baseline growth, it’s through reminding people and showing people the experience that we offer, the food, the taste and quality that we offer.”
The split with FIFA comes after McDonald’s produced its biggest-ever campaign for the 2026 World Cup. Created by Wieden+Kennedy New York, the campaign spanned more than 110 countries, and at the time, the campaign was McDonald’s largest marketing push of the year.
The spot was littered with stars to launch its new FIFA World Cup 26 Meal and Happy Meal promotion, which gave fans a chance to collect cups emblazoned with illustrations of some of the sport’s greats.
With each meal purchase, fans also scored one of nine collectible cups featuring soccer stars Christian Pulisic, David Beckham, Ronaldinho Gaucho, Thierry Henry, Son Heung-Min, Lamine Yamal, Alphonso Davies, Santiago Gimenez and Grimace. B&T reckons the Grimace cup was the best.
FIFA and McDonald’s in 2023 renewed their long-standing collaboration, which covered both the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023 and the FIFA World Cup 2026.
The renewal saw McDonald’s continue to sponsor FIFA’s flagship tournaments, which will include access to LED branding and the exclusive naming rights to the Fair Play Trophy, which is presented to the team with the best fair play record during FIFA competitions.
McDonald’s has been a supporter of football and has sponsored FIFA tournaments since 1994.
Both McDonald’s and FIFA have been contacted for comment.
