Sports Business
Albert Zbily on why a football match builds trust a sales call cannot
The FIFCO president explains how a five-a-side game between company teams turns strangers into contacts, and why that bridge matters for employees, sponsors and new markets.
“¿Qué es el Fútbol Corporativo? 🏢 La visión de Albert Zbily (FIFCO) para 2026”
Video from FARE SPORTS MÉXICO.
Generated from the canonical interview transcript and validated against source data by Guests on Air.
How can a corporate football match help companies build business relationships?
Albert Zbily argues that a shared match does what a cold call cannot. Employees who play together after work start talking about their jobs, and that conversation becomes a relationship. Through company teams, a corporate World Cup and regional tournaments, FIFCO uses football as a common language that links people, companies and countries that would otherwise never meet.
Most companies try to build new business through meetings, calls and trade visits. Albert Zbily, President of the International Federation of Corporate Football (FIFCO), makes the case for a simpler route: put employees from different companies on the same pitch and let a game of five-a-side do the introductions.
In an interview with FARE SPORTS MÉXICO, held partly in English and partly in Spanish, Zbily described a federation that now works in 68 countries and stages a corporate World Cup every year. Company teams from firms such as MasterCard and Bank of America travel to a new host country each edition, from Abu Dhabi to Greece, Morocco and Turkey.
The conversation kept returning to one idea. Football, in Zbily's telling, is not the product. It is a bridge that helps employees stay healthy, gives sponsors a direct line to working people, and opens doors between companies and countries that would struggle to find each other through formal channels.
Key takeaways
- FIFCO runs an annual corporate World Cup of five-a-side company teams that moves to a different country each year.
- Zbily wants only genuine company teams in the tournament, not friendship sides assembled for the event.
- Sponsors reach working people aged 35 to 45 who want to improve their health, wellbeing and work relationships.
- A shared match creates the trust that makes later business conversations easier, across borders and languages.
1. A World Cup built for company teams
FIFCO is almost 20 years old and operates much like a national football body, but its members are companies rather than clubs. Zbily said every year companies from around the world come to play five-a-side, and the tournament changes country each time. Above everything else, the federation specialises in that World Cup. The first edition, in 2018, was won by Mexico.
That early result taught the federation something about who should take part. The Mexican side was a friendship team rather than a true company team, and it did not return. Zbily now wants only company teams, naming large employers such as Cemex as the kind of entrant the tournament is built for.
Beyond the World Cup, the plan is to add regional events such as North American and South American games, and later tournaments for single industries like oil and banking. Each format keeps the same rule: the people on the pitch work for the companies they represent, so every match is also a meeting between businesses.
2. Why sponsors want access to working people
Asked what corporate football offers a sponsor that traditional sport does not, Zbily pointed to the audience. Fans of a club or a national team are watching other people play. In corporate football the audience is the employees themselves, the people who wake up every morning, go to the office and do a job.
Zbily linked that to life after COVID. People were sent home, and when the pandemic ended they were expected to return to work, yet the return has brought mental and physical challenges. Those same employees are important consumers, constantly looking to improve their health and state of mind, which makes them a valuable audience for brands.
The typical player is 35, 40 or 45 years old and may not have played since childhood. Zbily said they share the same needs: to stay healthy, stay active, network with peers and build harmony with colleagues. Bringing them from the office to the pitch to play, exercise and create communities is the small part FIFCO plays.
3. How a match opens doors that a cold call cannot
Zbily gave the clearest example in Spanish. Imagine a car seller who phones a stranger to offer a car. The answer is no, the person is busy. But after the two have played a match together there is a relationship, the conversation turns to work, and a sale that felt impossible becomes easy because each person has really seen the other.
Zbily contrasted this with the professional game. FIFA is a large institution that creates a great deal to watch, but ordinary people do not always benefit from what is meant to be the people's game. Football is for everyone, Zbily said, and it works as an international language that crosses the gaps formal meetings leave open.
The same logic applies between countries. Trade is easy with neighbours such as Mexico and the United States, and hard with places like India, Bangladesh or Pakistan where people do not know each other. Zbily built FIFCO's base in Africa, the Middle East and Asia one contact at a time over 20 years, and now aims for 100 countries, including Latin America.
