World Cup 2022: Clubs to earn $200million for releasing players

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By Martin Graham | 20th Nov 2022

32 teams in Qatar are about to go head to head for the chance to reach the FIFA World Cup final and claim the coveted World Cup trophy but the joy of becoming champions isn’t the only reward they will be getting. The winner of the tournament will get a prize money of $42 million.

This will be the largest payout in the tournament’s history. The prize money has gone up by four million dollars compared to the last World Cup in 2018, which was held in Russia. It has also gone up more than five times from eight million dollars at the 2002 World Cup which was hosted by Korea and Japan, more than 10 times from the four million dollars at the 1994 World Cup which was hosted by the U.S.

FIFA are set to earn a total of $440 million in payouts from this World Cup. This includes the prize money and participation allowances to the 32 countries that secured qualification for the World Cup finals in Qatar. This total sees their potential earnings from this tournament increase by 10% as their total earnings from four years ago was $400 million. The sixteen countries that fail to pass the group league will receive 9 million dollars each. Apart from the prize money that will be handed to the winner, the teams will be paid 1.5 million dollars each in allowance for their qualification for the World Cup finals.

Because of how massive the spectacle is, the World Cup generates a massive amount of revenue from sales of broadcast rights and advertisements which enables FIFA to spend such a huge amount of money on participation allowances and the World Cup prize money. In 2018, FIFA earned a total of $5.5 billion through the World Cup in Russia which is a lot more money than what they release for allowance payouts and the prize money which will be given to the winners.

According to FIFA, the 2018 tournament attracted a combined global viewership of 3.572 billion viewers – that is half the planet’s population. Fifa reported that the final match between France and Croatia alone attracted a combined global audience of 1.12 billion.

The prize money at the World Cup will be shared as follows:

Champions: $42 million

Runners-up: $30 million

Third place: $27 million

Fourth place: $25 million

Fifth-eighth place: $68 million ($17 million per team)

Ninth-16th place: $104 million ($13 million per team)

17th-32nd place: $144 million ($9 million per team)

The showpiece event is only a day away as hosts Qatar will face Ecuador after a massive opening ceremony. The tournament begins from Saturday 20th November and concludes on Sunday, 18th of December.