A YouTube star from Brazil has pulled off a major coup in the realm of sports broadcasting. When the FIFA World Cup returns for its next tournament, Casemiro Miguel‘s CazéTV will have the broadcast rights for all 104 matches.
CazéTV, operated by Miguel alongside agency LiveMode, will give Brazilians free access to the 2026 edition of soccer’s biggest stage (which will be hosted across the United States, Canada, and Mexico). Miguel will host the proceedings himself, with a parade of ex-players, creators, and pundits joining his broadcasts. Coverage of the matches will be supported by behind-the-scenes content and post-match wrap-ups.
The YouTube-based broadcasts will not supplant traditional rights holders. In Brazil, TV Globo will continue to air the World Cup, as it has done every four years since 1970. The arrangement is similar to the one that applied to the 2022 World Cup, when TV Globo covered all the games and CazéTV streamed a handful of matchups.
Miguel’s 2026 coverage will be more similar to the alternative broadcasts that have become popular in sports like (American) football. Personalities as varied as Dude Perfect, the Manning brothers, and Patrick Star have offered NFL commentary that runs adjacent to traditional broadcasts. Jesser
has brought a similar phenomenon to the world of basketball, and Alex Cooper got her crack at the alternative broadcast format during the 2024 Summer Olympics.The soccer world is ripe for that sort of disruption. Creator-powered spectacles on the pitch have become more popular than many professional matches, the biggest stars of the game have hunted viewership on YouTube, and digital-native stars have rubbed shoulders with footballing legends. During the recently concluded FIFA Club World Cup in the United States, participating Italian outfit Juventus F.C. added more weekly subscribers than all but eight YouTube channels around the globe. CazéTV, which teamed up with DAZN to broadcast the Club World Cup on YouTube, finished right above Juve in that ranking.
Even in an era flush with alternative sports broadcasts, the scope of the latest CazéTV deal is telling. In the world’s most soccer-obsessed nation, where “la joga bonita” is gospel, eyeballs are shifting to creator-led coverage. If that trend is powerful enough to disrupt Brazilian soccer, then it’s powerful enough to dominate any sport anywhere on the planet.
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