Argentina's Lionel Messi holds the trophy aloft as he celebrates with his team at the end of the World Cup final soccer match at the Lusail Stadium in Qatar in 2022.Hassan Ammar/The Associated Press
The 2026 World Cup champion will take home a record US$50-million, with every one of the 48 participating teams collecting at least US$10.5-million.
The FIFA Council, meeting ahead of the FIFA Intercontinental Cup final in Doha, Qatar, announced that a record US$727-million will be distributed through the expanded 104-game showcase.
Some US$655-million of that will be paid out as prize money among the participating teams.
The runner-up will collect US$33-million, with the third-place side picking up US$29-million and the fourth-place finisher US$27-million. That goes all the way down to US$9-million for teams finishing 33rd to 48th.
In addition, each qualified team will receive US$1.5-million to cover preparation costs.
The announcement comes in the wake of widespread criticism of FIFA for inflated ticket prices at the tournament co-hosted by Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. FIFA has said more than six million tickets will be made available for the tournament.
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In 2022 in Qatar, champion Argentina took home US$42-million of the US$440-million purse with runner-up France collecting US$32-million. Third-place Croatia and fourth-place Morocco earned US$27-million and US$25-million, respectively.
Canada, which failed to get out of its group, collected US$9-million in prize money in Qatar.
The cash is welcome for Canada Soccer, which reported revenue of $37.5-million in 2024. As co-host, Canada will also receive an unspecified amount as a legacy from the tournament, with plans to use some of it on a national training centre.
FIFA allocated US$152-million to the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, three times more than the previous Women’s World Cup in France in 2019 more than 10 times the amount offered at the 2015 tournament in Canada.
Of that, US$110-million was offered as prize money to the 32 participating teams.
Champion Spain collected US$10.5-million, with runner-up England earning US$7.5-million. The Canadian women went home with US$2.25-million after failing to survive the group stage.
The men’s World Cup is FIFA’s cash cow, essentially funding the operation for the next four years.
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FIFA reports the sale of rights related to the 2022 World Cup accounted for 83 per cent (US$6.314-billion) of its total revenue from 1999 to 2022 (US$7.568-billion). And that was for a 32-team, 64-game tournament with 3,182,406 tickets sold.
Thanks to the expanded 2026 edition, FIFA’s projected revenue for 2023-26 is a record US$13 billion, up from the US$10.9-billion in the initial budget approved by the FIFA Congress in 2023.
FIFA vice-president Victor Montagliani, a Vancouver native who doubles as CONCACAF president, says 80 to 85 per cent of that goes back to the 211 member associations.
“This tournament feeds, for the next four years, 211 countries,” he said.
About 50 per cent of the revenue from the last two World Cups was profit, according to Montagliani.
2026 World Cup Prize Money
Champion: US$50-million.
Runners-up: US$33-million.
Third-place: US$29-million.
Fourth-place: US$27-million.
Fifth-Eighth place: US$19-million.
Ninth-16 place: US$15-million.
Seventeenth- 32 place: US$11-million.
Thirty-third-48 place: US$9-million.
(Each qualified team will also receive US$1.5-million to cover preparation costs)