With less than a month to go before the start of the World Cup, FIFA has finally closed a deal to sell the television broadcast rights for the competition in China, for a price well below expectations.

CCTV, the Chinese state media, will pay around $60 million for the rights to the 2026 World Cup, below the $300 million that FIFA initially expected.

The agreement with China Media Group (CMG), which operates CCTV, includes the next four World Cups – two men’s and two women’s – until 2031, FIFA announced in a statement.

Regarding the World Cup that will take place in the United States, Mexico and Canada, CCTV will broadcast all 104 matches of the competition that begins on June 11 and for which China did not qualify.

“It is a true pleasure to announce the agreement with CMG,” declared FIFA Secretary General Mattias Grafström, who was in China last week where he met with officials from the Chinese Football Association.

“The Chinese market is extremely important to the global football community. We know the passion of Chinese fans and we are very happy and proud of our partnership with CMG to bring the FIFA World Cup to all fans in China,” added the official.

The time difference of up to 15 hours between Beijing and the cities that will host the World Cup contributed to FIFA having to accept a significant discount on the price of the rights.

On the other hand, the size of the Chinese market, with more than 1.1 billion people, would be at stake if FIFA had not reached an agreement, even though China has been absent from the World Cup since 2002.

Furthermore, without an agreement, FIFA would lose a market of more than 1 billion people for the World Cup.

A rights deal for India has not been confirmed.

“It’s a real pleasure that we have found an agreement with CMG,” FIFA secretary general Mattias Grafström said in the soccer body’s statement. He was in China this week, also for meetings with officials from the Chinese soccer federation.

FIFA’s leverage in China was less because of the time difference of up to 15 hours from Beijing to the 16 host cities spread across the United States, Canada and Mexico.