The World Cup is without a doubt one of the most important sporting events in the world. The 21st World Cup is being held, as probably all of you know, in Russia.

FIFA World Cup is a vast event, with 32 nations competing with each other to win the Jules Rimet Cup. Being the best national team in the world is a huge success. But for a second, let’s put the sports perspective aside, and check a couple of other facts about the biggest sporting event of 2018.

Teams and Languages of FIFA World Cup 2018

Last week we touched upon finding a translator in the United States – now we are expanding a bit. There are 32 nations competing in the tournament. Even though FIFA has 4 official languages (English, French, German, Spanish) not all of the players, coaches or staff are using these languages for communicative purposes. When you involve the media into the equation the number of languages being used in the tournament grows bigger.

There are 17 languages that 32 nations use to cheer for a goal. But just as the sport is more than just a goal, there are more than 17 languages for celebrating a goal as well. The World Cup is a global event that everyone feels close to. Apart from the 17 languages, other languages such as Chinese, Turkish and Italian are also used to create content before, during and after the event. The first platform is surely the internet. Then there is television. FIFA sold broadcasting rights in 109 countries and the number of viewers is expected to exceed 700 million.

Translation Perspective

All of the international events create demand for translation services. Even if you only consider the media coverage, we are talking about a huge amount of translation requirement. Not to mention marketing materials, legal documents and visa documents, all of which also create demand for language service providers.

Interpretation Perspective

It is obvious that not everyone speaks the same language. That is one of the reasons that interpretation is a must in such a global event. Apart from the communicative purposes, there is also the business perspective.

FIFA World Cup goes to a country/countries with huge responsibility. It is an extremely difficult task to manage and foresee everything that might be required. This is why the host needs years to prepare. Preparation phase creates lots of extra contracts and contractors around the globe run for a slice of the cake. Therefore, it creates a demand for interpretation services.

Financial Perspective

According to Business Insider, the last tournament’s expenditure was $15 billion.  FIFA made more than $4.8 billion revenue from the Brazil FIFA World Cup 2014. $2,6 billion of it was the profit and this is what just FIFA made. An international event at this size creates revenue for all the parties involved.

Marketing and Publications Perspective

FIFA World Cup is one of the oldest sporting events. This is why the FIFA brand and the tournament itself create a content cloud. Millions of words are written on a daily basis.

Case in Point: Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola has a great marketing strategy. They use various international or national events for marketing purposes. They create content and this content is translated to almost every language out there. This is where they require the professional help of language service providers. Since Coca-Cola is not the only company who uses the FIFA World Cup in their marketing strategy, this generates a demand for translation, interpretation and localization services.

We are almost done with the FIFA World Cup 2018. No matter who will win, we are going to cheer for them. As a language service provider, we are ready for the competition in Qatar for the World Cup 2022!

If you have further questions, do not hesitate to contact Link Translations and for all your translation needs get a no-obligation quote for free.