The FIFA World Cup Trophy is displayed at MetLife Stadium forward of the FIFA World Cup Ultimate on July 15, 2026, in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Jordan Financial institution – Fifa | Fifa | Getty Photos
The winner of the World Cup will hoist a trophy, obtain championship rings for the primary time, and acquire a lifetime of glory in what will probably be a defining second within the nation’s sports activities historical past. It’s going to additionally result in a big payday.
The World Cup winner earns $51 million. The second prize is $34 million.
FIFA expanded the payout for the 2026 World Cup, setting a file with a mixed $871 million paid to the 48 taking part groups. That tally contains greater than $100 million that was added in April after some federations in Europe lobbied for assist to cowl prices at a event throughout three international locations that has required intensive journey and lodging prices.
The $51 million for both Argentina or Spain is a big sum, however it additionally pales compared to the fortunes which can be spent on international soccer. It is also smaller than what final yr’s Membership World Cup winner earned in a event additionally performed within the U.S.
For perspective, the $51 million for the winner is lower than the switch price paid Tuesday by English membership Brighton for a 19-year-old defender who spent many of the World Cup on the bench, Croatia’s Luka Vušković.
This is what to know concerning the World Cup prize cash:
All groups receives a commission
FIFA pays cash to the 48 nationwide federations in two classes: Prize cash bonuses based mostly on how far every crew advances within the event and across-the-board funds to cowl coaching and preparation prices.
All 48 get a minimum of $12.5 million for competing within the World Cup, together with $10 million in prize cash for qualifying and taking part in within the group stage. Every receives $2.5 million for pre-tournament coaching and bills. That upfront cash was agreed at previous World Cups to assist keep away from pre-tournament tensions when it wasn’t unusual for gamers to assert that bonuses had not been paid by their federation.
The prize cash goes up relying on how far the groups advance.
Larger quantities come after federation calls for
Some federations, particularly from Europe, had advised FIFA that the prize cash construction and funds for preparation prices set final yr would go away them shedding cash on the event except their groups went deep into the knockout rounds.
French federation president Philippe Diallo advised sports activities day by day L’Equipe that, for a number of months, he had drawn FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s consideration to World Cup groups not being correctly rewarded, in contrast with what Membership World Cup winner Chelsea acquired one yr in the past. That was $115 million, after FIFA needed to promise a nine-figure reward that persuaded storied European golf equipment to play within the revamped competitors.
World Cup groups taking part in video games in the USA additionally confronted some tax obligations which can be exempted in Canada and Mexico.
World Cup champion will get the large bucks
The eventual champion receives $51 million, in comparison with $42 million for Argentina’s federation for successful the 2022 event in Qatar. That 32-team version had a complete prize fund of $440 million.
Here’s what the others are getting:
Runner-up: $34 million
Third place (England): $30 million
Fourth place (France): $28 million
Quarterfinalists (fifth to eighth): $20 million every
Spherical of 16 (ninth to sixteenth): $16 million every
Spherical of 32 (seventeenth to thirty second): $12 million every
Group stage (thirty third to forty eighth): $10 million every
Flights and inns are lined
Along with the payout sums and underneath World Cup laws, FIFA is already obliged to pay for enterprise‑class return flights for every federation to journey to the event plus board and lodging for a 50-person delegation, which incorporates the gamers. The lodge funds begin 5 nights earlier than a crew’s first recreation and one evening after it’s eradicated.
FIFA additionally covers the price of home journey for as much as 50 delegation members, and “a devoted fleet of automobiles, together with an tools truck.”
The soccer federations of World Cup groups should pay for “satisfactory insurance coverage … together with however not restricted to damage, accident, illness and journey,” plus “incidental lodge prices” and housing further members of a delegation.
The World Cup trophy
The best honor, after all, is the World Cup trophy.
A common view as a drone present takes place over the New York Harbor, displaying a graphic of the FIFA World Cup trophy, in entrance of the Decrease Manhattan skyline at Liberty State Park on July 17, 2026, in Jersey Metropolis, New Jersey.
Maja Hitij – Fifa | Fifa | Getty Photos
On Sunday, the champions will have a good time with it after the ultimate whistle throughout an award ceremony. The unique trophy just isn’t awarded completely. As a substitute, the winners will obtain a gold-plated duplicate, which they’ll maintain.
As for World Cup prize cash, that is paid by FIFA to the federations — not the gamers. It is as much as every federation’s guidelines how they deal with the cash.
For instance: U.S. soccer will get to maintain 20% of the prize cash. The remaining 80% that the U.S. males’s nationwide soccer crew receives will probably be break up evenly between the boys’s and ladies’s nationwide groups following a 2022 milestone settlement to pay its males’s and ladies’s groups equally, making the American nationwide governing physique the primary within the sport to vow each sexes matching cash.
