The FIFA World Cup is upon us having started last night which turned out to be costly financially for South Africa who lost to Mexico two nil and lets face it this should have been 4 or 5 nil except Mexico looked weak as well. There are fines for teams which I will get to further into the post.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup has a sizeable reward pool to hand out this time being $871 Million which is almost double the $440 million last time out in Qatar. The breakdown of the $871 million the 48 teams receive $655 million depending on where they finish and $120 million in preparation expenses which is basically $2.5 million each. FIFA is adding an additional $100 million to the teams due to the higher prices encountered in North America. The German team for instance is paying for the fans to travel to and from the stadiums as the prices being encountered are outrageous. Prices vary between $50 and $150 per trip to and from the stadiums. In 2010 as long as you had a ticket all transport was free of charge and was more about the fans experience.
Those teams not making the group stages which will be 16 teams will leave with the basic payment of $9 million less the fines they encountered during the 3 matches. As you can see from the above image the winners receive $50 million and one has to say the prize money is rather generous.
The fines are outrageous and expect FIFA to claw back a few million over the tournament.
Yellow Card $10 000
Red Card via two Yellow Cards is $15 000
Direct Red Card is $20 000
team fine is more than 5 cards issued is $15 000
Last night South Africa had two yellows and 2 reds totaling $60 000 in fines deducted off their guaranteed $9 million.
Another new fine is for fans which the countries will have to pay for any unruly behavior. Mexico recently paid a fine of $178 000 for homophobic chants and they must be hoping their fans keep quiet.
When you look at the FIFA World Cup payouts compared to other sports it does place things into perspective. The Rugby World Cup which is 6/7 games required to win the event the prize is $6 million and is more than 8 x less than FIFA. The Six Nations winners earn around $8 million playing only 5 games with 2 weeks rest in between so the IRB is definitely keeping it's fair share of the revenue. FIFA is non profit and there lies the difference yet we know even if they keep 10% of their revenue for "expenses" it is still a bucket load of cash and more than rugby's revenue.
The Cricket World Cup has a total prize pool of $10 million with the winner taking home $4 million and the contrast is huge as this would be the basic payment given to the 48 teams at the FIFA World Cup. The $2.5 million preparation allowance with the now added extra $2 million totaling $4.5 million is more than the Cricket World Cup winners cheque.
Football is on an entirely different level due to television coverage revenue and sponsorship deals. The stadiums revenue goes directly to FIFA and the host nations do not receive direct payments for hosting the event and quite the opposite as they have to bid to become the hosts which costs a fortune in commitments like infrastructure security and stadiums so this is in the $100's of millions. Some countries may receive a grant but the return is in the taxes the fans spend when visiting the country. In all fairness countries are lucky to break even after hosting an event and can take a decade or more to recover the costs through increased rates which the citizens of that country pay for.
