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US soccer bosses claim World Cup will be "100 times" bigger than the Super Bowl

The Super Bowl brought in 125m viewers earlier this month, but United States soccer chiefs are confident that number will be dwarfed by interest in the World Cup

The World Cup will be 100 times bigger than the Super Bowl, according to US soccer chiefs.

Lex Chalat, executive director, of the Soccer Forward Foundation believes it will be another game-changing moment for football in the United States to build even further after the 1994 World Cup.

The last Super Bowl attracted 125m viewers - the all-time record is 137m - and US Soccer chiefs believes this summer will attract billions around the world.

Chalat, talking at the FT Live event, said: We're expecting it to be the equivalent of viewership for this World Cup, is projected to be 100 Super Bowls. So that's how many people were expecting to to tune in.

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We're expecting a 50 percent increase of fandom as a result. And really, most importantly, what we're trying to do is maximise the fact that this will be the biggest major sporting event in the world.

This will be a first for us in how we host it, which is city led, they all are locally looking at how this will be relevant to them and how they can really make the most of this, both economically but also socially. From an impact perspective.

So at US soccer with soccer Forward Foundation is doing is trying to leverage that uniqueness, that growth and incredible growth of viewership of the game globally, but also the fandom of the game here in the US.

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And thinking about what does that mean for our sport, but also how can we make a social impact? So a big focus here for us on that legacy is really first maximising the fact that people's eyes will be on our sport, that that haven't been previously, particularly here in the United States.

The popularity of the womens World Cup back in 1999 and then also USA 94 and what they created in terms of players, coaches and the growth of the game and now how can we build on that now.

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