Moving the World Cup would create what would appear to be an unprecedented situation. Major events like the World Cup are sports tent poles. They are played at about the same time each year. The Winter Olympics are not played in May. The Super Bowl has moved to early February from its original mid-January perch — but not to July. The World Series has bled into November but always starts in October.

So if Fox, especially, and Telemundo view the rescheduling of the World Cup as onerous and seek financial relief — or even a release from their deals — would FIFA accommodate them?

“It’s extremely possible that FIFA says, ‘Here is your agreement, take it or leave it,’ ” said Ed Desser, a sports consultant and former longtime N.B.A. executive who called a potential shift of the World Cup an “an adverse material change.”

One sports executive who has seen the contract said there were no written provisions that would compel FIFA to offer any refunds or a release. But it has, at least, begun to talk to television partners about the ramifications of the possible change.

“Sepp Blatter will do what he wants to do, as he always has,” said Barry Frank, the executive vice president of IMG Media, referring to the longtime boss of FIFA. “I don’t know who Fox could appeal it to because nobody has any say except one guy — Blatter.” Frank, a veteran sports television dealmaker, suggested that Fox could get out of its deal — but only if ESPN is there to scoop it up.

“My sense is that FIFA wouldn’t let Fox out until they had it done with ESPN,” he added. ESPN and Univision bid unsuccessfully for the World Cup package acquired by Fox and Telemundo.

If, in the end, FIFA does not provide any wiggle room to Fox and Telemundo, the position would differ from contracts to carry the Olympics — at least those once negotiated by Richard W. Pound, a member of the International Olympic Committee who was the organization’s longtime broadcast deal broker. He recalled by telephone that the deals he made allowed for financial relief if the Winter or Summer Games were moved out of agreed-upon time periods. “They would have had to be moved by two or three weeks,” he said.