News Media Coalition Seeks FIFA Information In Support Of Editorial Tournament Coverage
In a rare step, the NMC has written an Open Letter to raise concerns about delays in FIFA confirming that arrangements for independent Press photography at the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 will be unchanged. FIFA invited newsrooms and newsgatherers in January to apply for accreditation access to the event which starts on June 14th. With 32 teams playing in 12 venues across the United States, the expanded tournament requires considerable planning by news organisations. But to date FIFA has yet to confirm that the number of Press photographers and their positions within stadia will be not diminished.
The letter, which follows numerous attempts by news organisations to obtain necessary information, states:
“At this point in the sports calendar – with just 60 days to go before the FIFA Club World Cup kick-off – newsrooms should have received confirmation that previous photographic positions within stadia would be in place again. This ordinarily enables news agencies to notify the thousands of users of their editorial content including news publishers world-wide about what to expect and enables publishers to confirm their own plans for newsgathering and distribution of news coverage to fans. This Open Letter – shared within the news community and beyond – seeks to help fill that gap.'”
Earlier this week, FIFA responded to the NMC open letter stating news organisations would have to continue to wait. Stressing that it was ‘doing everything possible to accommodate as many outlets as possible around the tournament’, FIFA promised to respond ‘at some point next week to discuss further details.’
NMC’s Open Letter in full is available here.
