2026 World Cup Prize Money: How Much Every Team Took Home

Intro

The 2026 World Cup tournament was over weeks ago, alongside with the trophy came a huge amount of prize money that was given out to the teams that participated in the tournament. FIFA paid out a total sum of $871 million to all  the 48 countries that took part in the tournament. And it is the highest amount of prize that has ever been given out to  teams at a World Cup.

Every team walked away with something even if it wasn’t big. Even the teams that got knocked out in the group stages were not left out of the reward, no one left the tournament without a prize at least.

How Much Did Each Team Earned

How far a team went in the tournament, the more their prize increased. Here’s the full breakdown of prizes the went home with:

The Big Winners

Spain emerged the winner of the tournament against Argentina in the last and final match of  the game in which they took home $51 million, that’s $9 million more than Argentina the amount that Argentina earned for winning the tournament back then in 2022. Winning the  tournament really does pay.

Argentina reached the final of the tournament and they earned $34 million for their participation. England finished the tournament third place, their best World Cup result since 1966, and they won up to $30 million. France, who took the fourth position earned $28 million.

Belgium, Norway, Morocco, and Switzerland are the teams that reached the quarter finals rounds of the tournament and they were each paid the sum of $20 million. The teams that got knocked out in the round of 16 are Brazil, USA, Portugal, Egypt, and Colombia earned the sum of $16 million.

Did Every Team Get Paid, Even the Early Exits?

For sure. Each and every team that qualified for the 2026 World Cup tournament received from FIFA at least $12.5 million. This was made up of $10 million for participating in the group stage of the tournament, additional $2.5 million was added so as to help cover preparation expenses before the tournament even began.

So even teams that lost in all the three group stages of the tournament and went home early still walked away with the sum of $12.5 million.

Why Did FIFA Pay That High Amount This Time?

The 2026 World Cup was hosted in three countries which were the USA, Canada, and Mexico. That meant that the teams that qualified had to travel far more distances in order to play the matches than at any previous World Cup that was hosted, making both travel and preparation costs to go up.

Football federations, especially the one in Europe, demanded that FIFA give more money so as to cover these extra costs and expenses. FIFA responded by increasing the prize pool, making sure that no team lost money simply by participating in the tournament.

One important thing to  note is that teams that had their matches scheduled in the United States had to pay a certain  amount of taxes there unlike the teams playing in Canada or Mexico didn’t have to pay. So the actual amount some of the teams took home was slightly lower than the figures that’s shown in the table above.