World Cup prize pool nears $900 million as FIFA boosts payouts

FIFA has increased payments to teams competing in the 2026 World Cup, raising the total distribution to $871 million, making it the most lucrative edition on record.

But the increased financial distributions, announced last Wednesday at the 36th FIFA Council meeting in Vancouver, Canada, come as the governing body faces criticism over ticket pricing and its commercial partnerships.

Under the new financial distribution structure, participating associations at the 2026 World Cup — set to be held across the U.S., Mexico, and Canada from 11 June — will each receive an additional $2 million, across:

That brings the minimum payout for each team to at least $12.5 million upon qualification, with additional prize money tied to performance in the tournament.

These payments are meant to defray some of the costs associated with qualifying and preparing for the quadrennial sporting tournament, including travel, training facilities and staff remuneration and are expected to be particularly meaningful to teams outside of the sport’s traditional powerhouses, according to Ricardo Fort, founder of sport consultancy Fort Consulting.

“This incremental contribution to the national football associations reinforces FIFA’s role in redistributing the commercial success of the tournament back into the global football ecosystem,” Fort said.

The 2026 edition of the World Cup is set to be the largest-ever, expanding to 48 teams, up from 32 in 2022. Four national teams — Cape Verde, Curacao, Jordan, and Uzbekistan — are set to make their debuts at this year’s edition.

FIFA said more than $16 million has also been set aside to cover the costs of participating delegations and team ticketing allocations, bringing the total pool set aside for participating teams to $871 million.

Football’s governing body previously announced a more than 50% increase in the tournament’s prize pool in December.

In December, the FIFA Council approved a “record-breaking” prize pool of $727 million at the 2026 edition of the tournament, a 65% increase from the $440 million allocated to teams in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.