Winning the 2026 World Cup on US soil will earn the champion $50 million or approximately Rs 450 crore, FIFA said on Wednesday. It is the biggest prize money ever attached to football’s most prestigious tournament.
However, it still will not make the winner the richest champion in the sport.
The numbers underline a reality that has quietly settled into modern football. Prestige and profit no longer peak at the same place.
The total prize pool for the 2026 World Cup stands at $655 million or Rs 5,895 crore. The tournament will be staged across the United States, Canada and Mexico from June 11 to July 19 and will feature an expanded field of 48 teams.
The champion’s payout is up from the $42 million won by Argentina in 2022 and the $38 million earned by France in 2018.
The overall prize fund has jumped by nearly 49 percent from the $440 million on offer at the Qatar World Cup in 2022.
Yet the headline figure still trails far behind what the club game now routinely pays out.
Earlier this year, Chelsea earned up to $125 million for winning FIFA’s expanded Club World Cup. That was more than double what a nation will receive for lifting the World Cup trophy after a month-long tournament that remains football’s biggest global event.
The contrast is striking. The Club World Cup, expanded from seven teams to 32 and squeezed into an already crowded calendar, offered a total prize fund of $1 billion. Some matches were played in half-empty stadiums and the tournament faced strong resistance from players’ unions and domestic leagues.
The World Cup, by comparison, remains the sport’s most watched spectacle. Its final draws hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide. Its prize money, however, reflects a different financial logic.
FIFA distributes World Cup prize money to national federations, not directly to players. Each of the 48 teams at the 2026 tournament will receive $1.5 million for preparation costs and $9 million for participating in the group stage, the same participation fee as in 2022.
Teams reaching the new round of 32 will earn $11 million. Reaching the round of 16 brings $15 million. Quarterfinalists receive $19 million. The fourth-place team earns $27 million, third place $29 million and the losing finalist $33 million.
Including participation payments, FIFA will distribute $727 million to the 48 federations.
What players actually take home depends entirely on their national associations. France’s players were reportedly in line for bonuses of around $586,000 each if they won the 2022 World Cup, a figure decided by their federation, not FIFA.
Club football works differently. Revenues flow year-round through domestic leagues, continental competitions and sponsorship deals. Clubs carry the wage bills, control commercial rights and negotiate directly with broadcasters.
That is why club tournaments now dominate the sport’s financial hierarchy.
The disparity is not limited to FIFA competitions. Last year’s European Championship offered maximum winnings of about €28.5 million, or $33.5 million, to the champion. In the same season, Real Madrid earned around $154 million for winning the Champions League, run by UEFA.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino has described the 2026 World Cup as “groundbreaking” in terms of its financial contribution to global football. FIFA has also pointed to additional funds earmarked for development programmes beyond prize money.
The organisation has projected revenues of $13 billion for its current four-year cycle through 2026, up sharply from $7.5 billion between 2019 and 2022.
(With inputs from AP)