The winner of the 2026 World Cup will receive a record jackpot of $50 million, FIFA said Wednesday.
That figure is up from $42 million in 2022 and $38 million in 2018. But it is still less than half of what was on offer at the much less-hyped Club World Cup earlier this year.
World soccer’s governing body said the total prize fund for the World Cup, staged in the United States, Canada and Mexico, was $655 million – a 50% increase on the previous edition in Qatar.
By comparison, the Club World Cup, which was controversially expanded from seven teams to 32 and shoehorned into the soccer calendar, had a total prize fund of $1 billion. The top prize for the winning team was worth up to $125 million for a tournament that faced fierce resistance from players and leagues and drew sparse crowds for some matches.
The Club World Cup, also staged in the U.S., was won by Chelsea.
FIFA has a different distribution model for the two tournaments, with the disparity in prize money reflecting factors such as clubs overseeing much higher costs through wages than national teams.
Beyond prize money, further funds are put toward development of soccer globally.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino said the World Cup would be “groundbreaking in terms of its financial contribution to the global football community.”
World soccer’s governing body approved the prize money for every stage of the World Cup at a meeting of its council in Doha.
The runner-up will receive $33 million, with $29 million and $27 million going to the third and fourth place teams respectively.
The lowest prize money will be $9 million and all 48 participating nations will get $1.5 million to cover what FIFA describes as “preparation costs.”
FIFA said, in all, $727 million would be distributed to the soccer federations participating.
It is not known how each nation will distribute the money, but at the last World Cup, French sports daily L’Equipe reported France players were in line for a bonus of $586,000 by their federation if they won the trophy. France was ultimately beaten by Argentina in the final.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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