ZURICH: FIFA and Visa, the leading global electronic payments company, today announced the extension of their relationship until 2022.

As a top-level FIFA Partner, this extension secures Visa’s global marketing rights and product category exclusivity for the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™, the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar™ and more than 40 FIFA events scheduled throughout the time period, including the FIFA Women’s World Cup™ and the FIFA U-20 World Cup.

Visa initially signed up as a FIFA Partner in 2007 and activated its first global sponsorship rights at the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ in South Africa. Those rights allow Visa to build its business and extend value and benefits to various stakeholders around the globe through marketing programmes that drive brand preference and product usage.

“We’re delighted to have reached this agreement with our valued partner, Visa,” said FIFA President Blatter. “Visa’s huge global network and engaging consumer programmes play a significant role in bringing the FIFA World Cup to all corners of the globe, and we’re delighted to have such a strong global brand by our side until at least 2022.”

Through this relationship, Visa can expand its impact with financial institutions, clients, account holders and fans. Visa also works to strengthen FIFA host markets and other communities by providing more access and education to electronic payments, creating more pathways for people to enter the formal financial system and improving financial literacy.

“With football’s unique power to inspire people everywhere, Visa couldn’t be more excited to extend its relationship with FIFA,” said Ricardo Fort, SVP Global Sponsorship Marketing at Visa Inc. “Our association with the FIFA World Cup and the entire portfolio of FIFA events differentiates our brand and allows us to offer unique opportunities to our clients around the world.”

Visa is the fifth of FIFA’s Commercial Affiliates to have committed to both the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups™, following adidas, Coca-Cola, Hyundai-Kia and Anheuser-Busch InBev. For more information on FIFA’s marketing programme and sponsorship structure, please visitwww.fifa.com/marketing.

About Visa

Visa is a global payments technology company that connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions and governments in more than 200 countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable electronic payments. It operates one of the world’s most advanced processing networks — VisaNet — that is capable of handling more than 47,000 transaction messages a second, with fraud protection for consumers and assured payment for merchants. Visa is not a bank and does not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers. Visa’s innovations, however, enable its financial institution customers to offer consumers more choices: pay now with debit, ahead of time with prepaid, or later with credit products. For more information, visitwww.corporate.visa.com