Fifa has announced a 50 per cent increase in World Cup prize money for next year’s tournament, with each team qualifying guaranteed at least $10.5 million (€8.95 million).
The champions are set to take home $50 million as a reward for their success.
The Republic of Ireland could qualify for the tournament in playoffs in March 2026, where they would have to beat the Czech Republic and the winners of Denmark and North Macedonia to qualify for the tournament in North America.
Should Ireland qualify then they would play Mexico, South Africa and South Korea in the group stage.
RM Block
The news comes days after there was widespread public outrage over the price of seats at the tournament, to be held in the United States, Mexico and Canada. Fifa this week announced a limited number of discount tickets for fans of participating countries.
After a meeting of the Fifa Council in Doha, Fifa said $727 million would be shared among its member nations “as a result of the Fifa World Cup 2026”. Of that figure, $655 million would be prize money distributed among qualifying nations. The runners-up will get $33 million and those ranked between “33rd and 48th place” in the expanded contest will receive $9 million each. With $1.5 million given to each participating team for “preparation costs”, this means each nation is guaranteed a minimum of $10.5 million.
Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantino, said: “The Fifa World Cup 2026 will … be groundbreaking in terms of its financial contribution to the global football community”.
In a previous revision to its projections, Fifa anticipates record revenues over the four-year cycle that ends in next year’s World Cup. The governing body expects to take in $13 billion between 2022 and 2026, up from $7.5 billion over the four years to 2022 (itself an increase from $6.4 billion over the previous cycle). Much of the growth was attributed by Fifa to the expansion of the World Cup and the men’s Club World Cup which took place in the US last summer.
Fifa announced on Tuesday that $60 (€51) tickets would be made available in the allocations national associations sell to their most loyal fans, after widespread criticism of Fifa’s initial pricing was revealed last week.
However, only 10 per cent of tickets within this allocation will be available at this price. – Guardian
