Playing by the rules: ambush marketing and legal risk at the FIFA World Cup 2026

Football fever has gripped the globe, and while teams, players and nations alike will be hoping for on-pitch glory, many brands will be hoping to capitalise on the “beautiful game” through World Cup marketing and advertising campaigns. But will they be shown the red card before the final whistle?

Football puns aside, the FIFA World Cup is one of the biggest sporting events in the world and, with that profile, comes the lucrative business of sponsorship, advertising and, more interestingly, ambush marketing. For brands and advertisers, the commercial opportunity sits alongside clear trade mark and intellectual property risks.

Ambush marketing: where brand creativity meets legal risk

Ambush marketing broadly refers to attempts by a third party to create a commercial connection with a major event without paying to become an official sponsor. Legal risks arise where a campaign takes unfair advantage of the event’s goodwill, creates a false impression of sponsorship or endorsement, or makes unauthorised use of protected intellectual property rights. With official sponsorship spots for the 2026 World Cup estimated to cost anywhere from $35 million to over $200 million, it is perhaps no surprise that other brands look for ways to join the conversation without the cost of official association.

One form is ‘ambush by association’. This is where a campaign suggests, expressly or implicitly, that a brand is connected with the event by using protected names, logos, imagery, slogans, hashtags or other indicia closely linked to it. The concern is not just literal trade mark use: the overall impression matters, particularly where consumers may be led to assume sponsorship, endorsement or some other official link.

Another form is ‘ambush by intrusion’. This usually involves a brand trying to secure visibility around the event itself without using official FIFA branding, for example through advertising near a stadium, branded giveaways, reactive social media campaigns or other activity designed to capture audience attention during the tournament. These campaigns can be harder to challenge from a pure trade mark perspective, but may still raise issues depending on how closely they track the event, the imagery used and whether they imply an association that does not in fact exist.

The legal analysis is therefore highly fact-specific. Not every football themed campaign launched during the World Cup will be problematic, and the law does not give FIFA a monopoly over all references to football. But the closer a campaign moves towards FIFA’s branding, official terminology, visual identity or the suggestion of endorsement, the greater the risk. Brands therefore often try to strike a careful balance between topical relevance and legal distance.

FIFA brand guidelines and intellectual property rights

FIFA sets out strict guidelines surrounding the World Cup in an attempt to protect against ambush marketing. It also has wide-ranging brand assets, including registered trade marks for the name of the competition, the FIFA logo and the image of the World Cup trophy in many territories.

FIFA lays out explicit brand guidelines for those willing to join in on tournament excitement, for example:

• Do use generic football references; do not use FIFA’s protected names, logos, slogans or other official branding unless you are authorised.
• Do let your campaign stand on its own; do not imply any official FIFA or tournament link.
• Do keep ads, promotions and merchandise clear of FIFA IP; do not use official assets to add tournament appeal.
• Do take care online, including with hashtags, domain names and website design; do not suggest an official relationship digitally.
• Do keep the ASA CAP Code in mind; do not mislead consumers into thinking you have an official relationship with FIFA.

Clever marketing, but where is the legal line for brands?

The key question is not whether a campaign mentions football in general terms, but whether, taken as a whole, it risks suggesting an official link with FIFA or moves too close to FIFA’s protected branding and event identity. Some creative examples have been employed during this World Cup with a few of our favourites listed below:

1. Guinness’ “the world’s cup” campaign clearly nods to the World Cup, but stops short of using the official term, with no football related imagery at all. This is an example of a brand evoking the tournament without directly using FIFA’s protected branding.
2. Heineken and Heinz’ dual campaign “The match we’ve all been waiting for” is a generic football nod, and the campaign centres on the pairing of the two brands, 6 bottles of Heineken with one replaced with a bottle of Heinz ketchup, rather than any close replication of FIFA’s protected branding. It is a good example of how advertisers can tap into tournament buzz without straying too close to the legal boundary.
3. FIFA’s venue rules ban visible corporate branding in stadiums unless the brand is an official sponsor, meaning Levi’s red tag needed to be covered at the San Francisco Bay Stadium. However, with the Levi’s Tab shape still instantly recognisable, Levi’s leant into this “redaction” on social media and made light of it. The campaign shows how powerful brand recognition is and that compliance can itself lead to good publicity.
4. Paddy Power showed us that the noisiest ambush campaigns often do not need to go near FIFA branding at all. In Dublin Airport, a full billboard takes aim at Ireland’s failure to qualify. In Hackney, the “Nobody does football better than us” campaign with US flag imagery shows how Paddy Power can poke fun and evoke the tournament without the need for any official IP or even close IP use.

Key takeaways

The World Cup offers huge marketing potential, but it also brings a higher risk of brands veering into protected territory. A campaign does not need to copy a FIFA logo to attract scrutiny: timing, imagery, wording and overall impression can all put a brand in the referee’s book. The safest route is to stick to generic football references and avoid anything that could suggest sponsorship, endorsement or another official link. For brands keen to react during the tournament, there is room to play the ball, but the smartest World Cup campaigns know where the legal goalposts are.