The champions of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 will be known in another week’s time, and the winner is set to receive the biggest amount of prize money ever in the history of the tournament apart from the glittering trophy at the Lusail Stadium on December 18.
Out of 32 competing nations, the Qatar 2022 semi-final line-up has now emerged following a thrilling quarter-final stage which saw two of the pre-event favourites Brazil and England suffering painful departures while Morocco became the first Arab and African nation to enter the last four.
According to FIFA, the Atlas Lions, two-time winners Argentina, defending champions France and Russia 2018 runners-up Croatia are already guaranteed at least $25m each, and are in line for the top prize of a whopping $42m.
The $42m award is a $4m jump from what France received at the last edition of the World Cup. It is part of a colossal $1bn total prize fund which is on offer at Qatar 2022 and interestingly, the $1bn mark is also a 29% increase from Russia 2018 where a total prize fund of $791m was on offer.
The $1bn fund consists of $440m in total prize money, Preparation Payments ($70m), Club Benefit Program ($310m) and Club Protection and Insurance Fee ($220m).
The 29% boost in the prize pool is mainly powered by funds generated after FIFA sign TV broadcasting and sponsorship deals for the four-year cycle for different competitions from 2019 to 2022.
FIFA has signed extensive TV and online streaming rights for all their major competitions and that helped increase the revenue from TV/streaming broadcasting deals, which will ultimately help boost the prize fund.
The runners-up in Qatar will receive $30m while the third and fourth placed teams $27m and $25m respectively.
Teams that are placed 5 to 8 will receive $17m each, while those who were positioned from 9 to 16 will get $13m each.
Teams which did not make it past the Group stage will receive $9m each.
Prior to the start of the World Cup, FIFA distributed $1.5m to all the teams qualified for the finals to cover their initial expenditures for the tournament.
On top of that, each team will also get a participation fee of $2.5m, that itself bigger than the amount which was presented to the winner of the Spain 1982 World Cup where FIFA announced prize money for the participating teams for the first time.
A total of $20m was allocated as total prize bag at the 1982 World Cup from which winners Italy took home $2.2m after defeating West Germany 3-1 in the final at the Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid.
The World Cup winners’ prize money has been gradually rising since then, (1986 Mexico – $2.8m, 1990 Italy $3.5m, 1994 USA – $4m, 1998 France – $6m and 2002 South Korea and Japan – $8m) before making a significant jump at the 2006 Germany World Cup where champions Italy took home $20m from a total prize bag of $154m.
The total amount of prize money has been on a gradual increase since then, with South Africa 2010 winners receiving $30m out of a total fund of $420m, Brazil 2014 winners getting $35m from a $576m fund, before Russia 2018 winners took home $38m out of a total prize bag of $791m.
The players do not get any prize money directly from FIFA, as the money is handed to national federations. However, it is up to national football federations to decide if they want to compensate their players in anyway.
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