The Beautiful Game’s Brands: FIFA’s Trademark Empire, the World Cup in Florida, and How Messi, Mbappé, Ronaldo and Yamal Protect Their Names, Numbers and Celebrations Around the World

The 2026 FIFA World Cup, played across the United States, Canada and Mexico from June 11 to July 19, 2026, brought seven matches—including the third-place match—to Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, and with them the most intensive trademark enforcement program in the history of American sport.

Behind the tournament stands a portfolio of hundreds of registrations owned by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, and behind the players stand portfolios of their own: the names, initials, logos, numbers, slogans and even goal celebrations of the game’s biggest stars are registered trademarks in dozens of jurisdictions, licensed to apparel companies, fragrance houses, hotel operators and video game publishers, and enforced against counterfeiters and free riders on every continent.

This post explains how trademark law works for FIFA and for the players—what can be registered, where, and why it matters—with particular attention to the four players who defined the 2026 tournament’s commercial landscape: Lionel Messi, who plays his club football in Florida for Inter Miami, Kylian Mbappé, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Lamine Yamal, the youngest global brand in the sport. It includes a chart of their principal registrations and closes with lessons for Florida athletes, teams, brands and the businesses that want to market alongside them.

For our trademark and entertainment practices, see Trademark Matters and Entertainment Law Matters.

FIFA’s Trademark Empire:

What FIFA registers

FIFA, a Swiss association headquartered in Zürich, owns the trademarks for its competitions and licenses them to the sponsors, broadcasters, merchandisers and host cities that fund the tournaments. Its United States portfolio, maintained with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, includes word marks for FIFA, WORLD CUP, FIFA WORLD CUP, FIFA CLUB WORLD CUP, FIFA WOMEN’S WORLD CUP, WORLD CUP 2026 and WORLD CUP 26, the host-nation formulations USA 2026, CANADA 2026 and MEXICO 2026, UNITED 2026 and MUNDIAL 2026, and the tournament slogan WE ARE 26; design marks for the 2026 official emblem, the FIFA World Cup Trophy, the tournament typeface and the host-city emblems; and marks for the three 2026 mascots, Maple, Zayu and Clutch.

The registrations cover the goods and services in which FIFA licenses—apparel, footwear, sporting goods, toys, printed matter, beverages, software and video games, entertainment and broadcasting services, and hospitality—and are mirrored in the European Union, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Mexico, Canada, Brazil, China and the other major markets through national filings and the Madrid Protocol.

FIFA’s claim to the words themselves has not gone unchallenged. In 2023, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court held that QATAR 2022 and WORLD CUP 2022 were descriptive of the event and not registrable as trademarks in Switzerland, placing those formulations in the public domain there. In the United States, however, FIFA’s registrations for WORLD CUP and its variants are incontestable, and the USPTO has consistently registered the year-specific marks. Whatever descriptive character the phrase might have in the abstract, decades of exclusive use and licensing have made it, in the United States, a source identifier for FIFA’s tournament.

How FIFA enforces

FIFA does not rely on special legislation in North America. Unlike Brazil, South Africa and Qatar, which enacted statutes creating exclusion zones and anti-association rights for their tournaments, the United States, Canada and Mexico host the 2026 tournament under ordinary trademark, unfair competition and contract law. In the United States, that means the Lanham Act—infringement of registered marks under § 32, false designation of origin and false association under § 43(a), dilution of famous marks under § 43(c) and cybersquatting under the ACPA—supplemented by state law, including Florida’s Chapter 495 and the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, and by the contractual “clean venue” obligations imposed on stadiums, host cities and hotels.

FIFA’s brand protection program in 2026 included customs recordation of its marks, which supported seizures of more than $6 million in counterfeit merchandise at U.S. borders during the tournament year, a domain-name program that has produced nearly one hundred UDRP proceedings against sites such as fifawc26.com and fifaworldcuptickets.com, systematic monitoring of social media, marketplaces and out-of-home advertising in host cities, and thousands of takedown notices and cease-and-desist letters directed at “ambush marketing”—the use of tournament references by non-sponsors to suggest an association. The organization’s public guidance is blunt: a business that is not a FIFA commercial affiliate may not use WORLD CUP, the emblem, the trophy, the mascots or the slogan in advertising, promotions, contests, hashtags or signage, and even a “World Cup watch party” invitation from a bar or restaurant will draw a demand letter.

The limits of that position lie in trademark law’s own doctrines. Nominative fair use permits a reference to the tournament that is necessary to identify it, uses no more of the mark than needed, and does not suggest sponsorship. For instance, a sports bar may say that it will show the match, but it may not say that it is the “official” or “home” of the World Cup, use the emblem, or run a “World Cup” promotion. News reporting and commentary are protected. Fans may post about the tournament freely. And in the Eleventh Circuit, the likelihood-of-confusion analysis, not FIFA’s guidelines, determines infringement. The practical reality, however, is that FIFA’s enforcement budget exceeds any non-sponsor’s litigation budget, and most disputes end with the removal of the reference.

Trademark Rights in a Player’s Name, Number and Image:

Why athletes register

A professional footballer’s commercial value rests on two kinds of rights. The first is the right of publicity—in Florida, the statutory right under § 540.08 and the common-law right to control the commercial use of one’s name, likeness and persona—which exists without registration, is personal to the athlete, and, in the United States, varies from state to state. The second is trademark — a registered right in a name, initial, logo, number, slogan or other sign used to identify goods and services, which is territorial, transferable, licensable, enforceable through customs and marketplace programs, and, unlike publicity rights, recognized in essentially the same form in every country through the Paris Convention, the Madrid Protocol and the TRIPS Agreement. A player who wants to sell branded apparel in Buenos Aires, Paris, Riyadh, Shanghai and Miami, or license a fragrance or a hotel chain, or to stop a counterfeiter in a customs warehouse in Rotterdam, needs trademark registrations in each of those markets, and the top players maintain portfolios that rival those of consumer-products companies.

What can be registered

Trademark offices register a player’s name (MESSI, CRISTIANO RONALDO, KYLIAN MBAPPÉ, LAMINE YAMAL) as a word mark, subject in the United States to § 2(c) of the Lanham Act, which bars registration of a living individual’s name without written consent—a provision that protects the player against third-party filings as much as it constrains them. They register initials and numbers (CR7, LY304, 304) as word and design marks. They register logos: Messi’s stylized “M” crest, Mbappé’s “KM” device, Ronaldo’s CR7 monogram. They register slogans associated with the player. And, most recently, they register poses: Mbappé’s crossed-arms celebration and Yamal’s “304” hand gesture are registered as figurative marks depicting the silhouette of the celebration. It’s important to understand a registration for a celebration does not prevent anyone from performing it on a field, but it does prevent its use as a brand on merchandise and in advertising. Trademark rights in a name are also limited by the requirement that the mark be used, or intended to be used, on identified goods and services. A player’s name is protected as a trademark only for the classes in which it is registered and used, which is why portfolios span apparel (Class 25), sporting goods (Class 28), cosmetics and fragrances (Class 3), jewelry and watches (Class 14), bags (Class 18), software and games (Class 9), printed matter (Class 16), entertainment and education services (Class 41) and hospitality (Class 43).

The Messi decision: fame as a defense to confusion

The most important European decision on athlete trademarks is Lionel Messi’s own. In August 2011, Messi applied to register a figurative mark consisting of his stylized crest and the word MESSI with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) for sports apparel, footwear and equipment in Classes 9, 25 and 28. The Spanish cycling-apparel company that owned the earlier word mark MASSI opposed. EUIPO upheld the opposition, finding the marks visually and phonetically similar and reasoning that Messi’s fame would dispel confusion only among football fans. The General Court reversed in 2018, and on September 17, 2020, in joined cases C-449/18 P and C-474/18 P, the Court of Justice of the European Union dismissed the appeals of both EUIPO and the opponent. The Court held that Messi’s reputation was so pervasive throughout the European Union that the average consumer of sports goods—not merely the football enthusiast—would perceive MESSI as the footballer’s name, producing a conceptual difference strong enough to neutralize the visual and phonetic similarity to MASSI and to exclude any likelihood of confusion. The decision, which took nine years, established that a person’s celebrity is a legally relevant fact in the comparison of marks, and it cleared the way for Messi’s European licensing program.

The Four Players: Portfolios Compared:

The chart below summarizes the principal trademark holdings of the four players, drawn from the EUIPO, USPTO and national registers and from published reports as of September 2026. Athlete portfolios change constantly — applications are filed before every major licensing deal — and the registers themselves should be consulted before any reliance.

What the chart shows

Four patterns emerge. First, every one of these players registered his name and a distinctive short-form identifier—a crest, a monogram, initials or a number—because names alone are hard to use on products and are vulnerable to conflicts, while a logo or number is a cleaner brand. Second, the portfolios track the licensing business: Ronaldo’s Class 43 hotel filing and Class 3 fragrance marks, Mbappé’s Class 14 jewelry and Class 3 cosmetics registrations, Messi’s concentration in Argentina and China, and Yamal’s focus on apparel, footwear and games each reflect where the money is being made or is planned. Third, the newest generation registers its celebrations and catchphrases, converting the moments that circulate on social media into licensable property. Fourth, the United States remains under-registered relative to the players’ commercial presence here—Messi has a handful of U.S. marks despite playing in Miami, and Mbappé and Yamal appear to have few or none—which creates both an opportunity for the players and a risk that third parties will file first.

Florida Connections

Florida is now central to the business of football. Inter Miami’s signing of Messi in 2023 made South Florida the headquarters of the sport’s most valuable personal brand, the 2026 World Cup brought seven matches to Miami Gardens and an official FIFA Fan Festival to Bayfront Park, and the state’s licensing, sports-marketing and media companies service athletes from every league. Several bodies of Florida law govern the resulting disputes. Florida’s right of publicity statute, § 540.08, prohibits the unauthorized use of a person’s name, portrait, photograph or likeness for trade, commercial or advertising purposes and provides for damages, including punitive damages, and injunctive relief. Chapter 495 allows a player to register a name, logo or number as a Florida trademark and to sue for infringement with treble damages and fees. FDUTPA reaches false endorsement and false association. And the Eleventh Circuit’s Lanham Act jurisprudence—including its 2025–2026 decisions on false endorsement, keyword advertising and the limits of the Rogers defense after Jack Daniel’s—governs the federal claims. A business in Florida that used Messi’s name or image, or the World Cup marks, to promote a product or event during the tournament without a license, faced all of these at once.

Lessons and Recommendations:

For athletes and their representatives

• Register early, in the right classes, in the right countries. Yamal’s filings at 17 are the model. File the name, a short-form identifier and a logo in the home country, the European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, China and the markets where licensing is planned, in the classes the licensing will actually use, before the first major deal is announced and before third parties file.
• Use the Madrid Protocol and a holding entity. An international registration based on a home filing extends protection efficiently, and ownership through a management company (as Messi and others have done) simplifies licensing, succession and tax planning—provided the company controls the quality of licensed goods so that the marks are not abandoned through naked licensing.
• Protect the moments. A celebration, a catchphrase, a number and a nickname are all registrable if used as brands. Register them before the merchandise appears, and pair the trademark with copyright in logo artwork and with publicity-rights enforcement.
• Build a U.S. portfolio. Players who earn in the United States—through MLS, endorsements, tours, video games and social media—should hold U.S. registrations, which support customs recordation, Amazon Brand Registry, marketplace takedowns and Lanham Act remedies unavailable to unregistered marks.
• Monitor and enforce. Watch the registers for third-party filings of the player’s name (§ 2(c) makes them refusable in the United States, but only if someone objects), monitor marketplaces and social media for counterfeit and unlicensed goods, and use UDRP proceedings for domain names.

For teams, leagues and licensees

• Paper the rights. A license of a player’s name and likeness should specify the marks, the territories, the classes, the term, quality control, approval rights, and what happens when the player transfers; the Messi CJEU decision shows how long a trademark dispute can take, and licensing should not depend on a pending application.
• Separate club marks from player marks. A club owns its crest, name and kit designs; the player owns his name, number brand and logo. Co-branded merchandise requires both licenses, and a transfer ends one of them.

For Florida businesses marketing around football

• Assume FIFA and the players are watching. Do not use WORLD CUP, the emblem, the trophy, the mascots, the slogan, a player’s name or image, or a lookalike, in advertising, promotions, contests, hashtags or signage without a license. Generic references to “the big match,” “soccer” and “summer of football” are permissible, but a “World Cup special” is not.
• Use nominative fair use carefully. A venue may state that it will show a match, but it may not claim to be official, use FIFA’s marks as decoration, or imply sponsorship. Keep the reference factual, minimal and unadorned.
• Verify merchandise sources. Retailers that stock counterfeit or unlicensed World Cup or player merchandise are liable regardless of knowledge, and customs seizures reach their inventory. Buy only from licensed suppliers and keep the documentation.
• Respond to demand letters promptly and precisely. Most FIFA and player-rights demands can be resolved by removing the reference; a response that asserts fair use should be reviewed by counsel against the Eleventh Circuit’s confusion factors before it is sent. See Cease and Desist Letters.

Conclusion

Football’s stars are brands, and the law treats them as such. FIFA’s portfolio turns a month-long tournament into a licensing enterprise enforced through the Lanham Act, customs and the UDRP. The players’ portfolios—Messi’s crest, Ronaldo’s CR7, Mbappé’s crossed arms, Yamal’s 304—turn names, numbers and gestures into property registered on every continent and licensed for apparel, fragrance, hotels and games. The CJEU’s Messi decision confirmed that fame itself shapes the analysis. For Florida, home to Messi and host of the 2026 tournament, the practical consequences are clear: athletes should register early and broadly, licensees should paper their rights, and businesses that want to trade on the excitement should do so without trading on the marks.

If you represent an athlete, team, league or licensee, or your business has received a demand relating to World Cup or player marks, please visit our Trademark Matters, Entertainment Law Matters and Litigation & Enforcement pages, or contact us at 305-374-8303.