The FIFA World Cup Prize Money Cash Cow

Once every four years many around the world jump on board the FIFA World Cup bandwagon. Armchair experts aplenty, somehow capable of progressing at the speed of light from not realising that the FIFA World Cup didn’t involve the Green Bay Packers, to being able to provide a detailed breakdown of the faults in Messi’s attacking game or telling stories of how if just they tried a little harder in their teens that they too could be rolling on the field with Neymar. Those on the bandwagon aside, nobody can deny that the World Cup means big audiences, with estimated viewer numbers in the billions. Place a billion viewers in any scenario and you have the opportunity to create a money making machine. In this article we are going to take a look at how the various competing countries will profit, because winning isn’t just for glory …although Profit Pants loves winning almost as much as profits.

The 2018 FIFA World Cup will be the largest prize pool in history, with a combined $400 million handed out to the lucky 32 countries who reach the final tournament.

World Cup Group Stage Prize Money

It is no easy feat making it into the World Cup final tournament to begin with. Countries have already fought long and hard for over a year or more of qualifying games to even get this far. There are over 200 countries vying for the honour of holding the cup. Realistically though, most stand little to no chance, maybe you could try investing in CryptoKitties instead for a quick win. It is so hard to make it into the final tournament that even the football mad Italians didn’t make the 2018 World Cup final tournament!

Having your country seen on the world stage by an audience of billions can have huge flow-on impacts for grass-roots football and the future talent of the nation. A 5 year old watching their country today could himself be playing in a world cup in just 13 or so years. Or more likely, they will possibly be inspired to follow the game more closely, be a consumer and purchase merchandise.

The 32 countries in the final tournament are divided into 8 groups. Each country plays every other country in their group, so that’s 3 games that each country will play, and the strongest 2 proceed to the next round.

The 16 countries which play in the group stage, but make it no further, will each take home a cool $8 million. That’s a combined $128 million going to the 16 first round “losers”.

World Cup Round of 16 Prize Money

The 16 teams who finished either first or second in their groups progress beyond the “Group Stage” go on to play the aptly named “Round of 16”. Every game now is sudden death. Lose and you are going home on the first plane …or maybe just jumping in the car and driving home if you already happen to live in Russia.

The 8 losers from the Round of 16 take home $12 million each, making a total payout of $96 million for the 8 nations.

Add the Round of 16 losers to the Group Stage losers and we are at $224 million.

World Cup Quarter Finals Prize Money

8 winners from the Round of 16 now play off against one another in the Quarter Finals. We are in sudden death again and only 4 will remain at the end.

Our 4 loser countries from the Quarter Finals don’t go home empty handed, they each are handed $16 million. This makes a combined $64 million for our 4 Quarter Final losers and the total prize pool up until this point sitting at $288 million.

World Cup Fourth Place Prize Money (Semi Finalists)

Our 4 winners from the Quarter Finals then go into another round of sudden death in the Semi Final stage. Become a loser in this stage and you will go no further, however you do have an opportunity to be a loser once again when you play against the other Semi Final loser.

The loser of the losers ends up in fourth place and is given $22 million. We are now up to $310 million.

World Cup Third Place Prize Money (Semi Finalists)

The winner of the Semi Final loser game then finishes the tournament in third place and takes home $24 million. That’s only $2 million more than third, so it is more about the glory and with this our total prize pool is at $334 million.

World Cup Runner Up Prize Money

Wow, you have made it to the final game of the 2018 FIFA World Cup tournament, the Finals. But there is still a chance to be a loser, and this is exactly what the runner up will be, the first loser. Finish in second place and take home $28 million.

For the glory of making a FIFA World Cup final an additional $4 million in prize money over third place doesn’t really sound like enough. The number on our prize pool up until this point now comes up to an impressive $362 million.

World Cup Champions Prize Money

The victors, the winners, your 2018 FIFA World Cup Champions.

Qualifying games just to make the World Cup final tournament, 3 group stage games and finishing in the top 2 of the group, a win in the Round of 16, a win in the Quarter Final, a win in the Semi Final and a win in Final. The highest point that any nation can reach in the game of football, or soccer, the Mount Everest. But never fear, there is always a chance to lose again in another 4 years.

The Champions of the 2018 FIFA World Cup will take home $38 million bringing the prize pool grand total to a lazy $400 million.

What About Other Prize Money?

In addition to the prize money handed out based on the results of the final tournament games, there is also a $1.5 million initial payment for each of the 32 teams, intended to be a preparation fee.

Many of the individual players are sitting on huge contracts with their respective clubs, and nobody wants to see them get injured. There is $134 million set aside for player insurance and another $209 million that goes to each of the players “normal” clubs.

These additional payments bring the overall pool to $791 million.

How Does This Compare To Previous Years?

The 2018 FIFA World Cup prize pool is the largest in history.

Let’s forget about the preparation fees, player insurance and payments to the players normal clubs, as that stuff is a bit boring.

• 2018 World Cup Prize Money – $400 million (just in case you have the memory of a gold fish and forgot from a few paragraphs up)
• 2014 World Cup Prize Money – $358 million
• 2010 World Cup Prize Money – 348 million
• 2006 World Cup Prize Money – $236 million
• 2002 World Cup Prize Money – $134 million

Is There Any Other World Cup Money?

There is money everywhere.

• FIFA – The organisers of the competition, there is money for FIFA of course, who are believed to have made around $2 billion in profit from the 2014 World Cup, mainly through selling off television and marketing rights.
• The Countries – In addition to the prize money that we discussed above the real payoff for each country comes in the form of hidden income streams.
  • Sponsorships: Become a World Cup champion and you won’t be struggling to find sponsors any more. That’s at least 4 years of payments coming your way until someone else has a chance of becoming the new world champ.
  • Local competition: People love a good bandwagon. Win the world cup, or just place well, and suddenly all of the talk at the water cooler is about the game. Once the World Cup is over there is still a gap to fill and take-up of the local football competition increases too, which benefits local clubs from increased memberships, increased local player salaries, increased television viewership and increased sales of everything else to do with the local game.
  • Grass roots funding: Following on from the above point, interest in the game is also increased from children and their parents. More kids start playing, and paying, which then also starts money flowing to any other company or person associated with the game. These little players are then your potential future superstars who can help to take your nation to future World Cup victories.
• The Players – With all of the talk about the money for each of the countries you can’t help but start to feel sorry for the players …right? While for many players it is the ultimate payment just to be able to play in the tournament, there aren’t many playing in the final tournament who are struggling to feed their families. The biggest names in the game are on mega bucks. For example, Lionel Messi sitting on a contract with Barcelona FC paying $40-50 million a year, this is more than even the world cup winning team will receive. Now let’s imagine that Argentina win the World Cup with Lionel Messi at the helm, suddenly his personal brand has risen even further. Sponsors need to compete even more to see his name on their football boot, high end watch or perfume. Oh yeah, they also receive very sizeable bonuses based on how their country performs. A slightly better pay day than silver spoon collecting.

What About Prize Money in Other Sports?

The prize money numbers that we are talking about for the 2018 FIFA World Cup completely overshadow those offered in other sports. Let’s have a quick look at a few:

• Cricket World Cup – $10 million purse with around $4 million going to the winner.
• Super Bowl – $11 million to the winner.
• World Series Baseball (which for some reason only includes teams from America despite the “World” in the title) – $65-70 million.
• Badminton Super Series – Multiple tournaments paying a prize pool of up to $1,250,000 each. Yes, really. Badminton is big business and we are talk about it in Badminton Earnings Smash.
• Grand Slam of Curling (which is part of the World Curling Tour, obviously) – $100-150 …thousand.

But It’s Not Just About Money

Well, it kinda IS all about the money for the purpose of this website. However, for those that follow football like a religion, the FIFA World Cup is the holy grail and taking home the cup is the ultimate prize and the money that comes with it follows in a distant second.

So jump on the bandwagon and hope that your team scores a touchdown!

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