The champions of the 2026 FIFA World Cup are set to take home $50 million, a spike from $42 million from the previous edition in Qatar. The runners-up would have to be content with $33m, while the third and fourth place would receive $29m and $27m, FIFA announced in the 50 percent scaling up of total prize fund for the expanded tournament in USA, Mexico and Canada.
The decision was announced after the FIFA Council meeting in Doha, where president, Gianni Infantino, said: “The FIFA World Cup 2026 will also be groundbreaking in terms of its financial contribution to the global football community. In recent years, FIFA has stepped up its efforts to boost youth football. This is a natural next step.” He announced that a total of $727m “would be shared among its member nations.”
Among that sum, $655m would be distributed among qualifying nations. Every participating team will get a minimum of $10.5m. Those those ranked between 33rd and 48 in the eventual table will receive $9 million apiece. A sum of $1.5m given to each participating team for “preparation costs”. Those that lose in the round of 16 stand to receive $11m, the losing pre-quarterfinalists would earn $15m and those that crash out in quarterfinals will get $19m.
The increase prize pot comes in the backdrop of a projected revenue of $13bn of revenue in the four-year cycle that culminates in the 2026 grandee. It’s nearly double the revenue that the organisation garnered in the previous cycle ($7.6bn). Much of the growth was attributed by Fifa to the expansion of the World Cup and the men’s Club World Cup which took place in the US last summer.
The announcement came in the backdrop of simmering protests against the exorbitant ticket prices. Market analysts have pegged that the tournament could be five times as expensive as the Qatar edition was. FIFA partially relented, introducing a new category of $60 tickets for every game, but that constitutes just 10 per cent of the eight per cent allocation for Participating Member Associations.
Fifa’s council also approved the establishment of a post-conflict recovery fund “in line with [its] objective of promoting football’s unifying values. It said this followed “the announcement made by President Infantino at the Sharm El-Sheikh Summit for Peace on 13 October 2025 that Fifa intended to create a support mechanism for regions that have experienced conflict”
“This financial instrument, which will be open to third-party contributions and be subject to strict oversight, will complement action already implemented under the Fifa Forward Programme and other Fifa initiatives.”
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World Cup 2026 prize money (per team): Champions: $50; Runners-up: $33m; 3rd place: $29m; 4th place: $27m; 5th-8th place: $19m; 9th-16th place: $15m; 17th- 32nd place: $11m; 33rd-48th place: $9m
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