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12/17 10:22 CST World Cup winner to get record $50 million jackpot. Still less
than half offered at Club World Cup
World Cup winner to get record $50 million jackpot. Still less than half
offered at Club World Cup
By JAMES ROBSON
AP Soccer Writer
MANCHESTER, England (AP) --- 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.
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James Robson is at https://x.com/jamesalanrobson
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
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