World Cup is insured for over £6.2bn
WHILE football fans across the world prepare for the elation and heart-break of the World Cup, insurers are ready for an even higher-stakes tournament.
The month-long finals have been insured for £6.2bn according to Lloyds of London, the world’s biggest insurance market.
The vast sum is made up of thousands of policies taken out by the likes of organiser Fifa and the BBC. Half of it is associated with the insurance of stadiums and the state of the art training camps used by the teams.
Another £3bn is for “contingency” insurance, which covers losses incurred by firms with a financial interest in the tournament through unforeseen circumstances.
This could include broadcasters losing out on advertising revenue after delayed or postponed matches, or firms running competitions based on a particular team winning the cup.
A further £200m has been taken out to cover liability insurance for injuries sustained while on any of the World Cup premises.
However, insurance against on pitch injuries has not been included in the data released by Lloyds and would cause the estimate to rise exponentially.
Top players at the peak of their career are insured for up to £40m, and, with the world’s finest players all playing in the same tournament, the total insurance taken out will come to hundreds of millions of pounds.