World Cup prize money: How much teams can make at 2026 World Cup as Fifa increase prize money by 50% | OneFootball

The World Cup 2026 is almost upon us, with the Mexico vs South Africa game on Thursday night kicking this eagerly-anticipated tournament off.

In the coming days we will also get to see giants such as Brazil, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and England in action for what promises to be a hugely exciting contest between so many world class players.

Fifa increase World Cup prize money by 50%

It was reported late last year that Fifa were increasing the prize money for the World Cup winners by 50% for the 2026 tournament.

While Fifa have received their fair share of criticism for some of the handling of this year’s World Cup, this does look like pretty generous money that can help a lot of countries, similar in some ways to how some online gaming and casino sites offer free sweeps coins no deposit, allowing you to make money without even having to put any in yourself.

Some nations like Curacao and Cape Verde are competing at this stage for the first time, so it’s a big boost for them to be able to bag this prize money just for taking part, which they can then invest into improving football training and grassroots development for the future.

See below for a full breakdown of how much the World Cup winners and other competing sides stand to earn…

Fifa president Gianni Infantino said this increased prize money would “be ground-breaking in terms of its financial contribution to the global football community”.

Who will win the 2026 World Cup?

The World Cup has been expanded to 48 teams this year, so although we’ll have to wait a bit longer before getting a clear idea of who’s going to win it, we do already know the huge prize money that’s up for grabs this year.

So, there’s plenty at stake for the winners of this year’s competition, with France and Spain likely to be seen as the early favourites.

Outside of those two, the usual suspects like England, Brazil, Argentina, and Germany will surely be there or thereabouts, but could fatigue play a part this year?

It’s been an exceptionally busy footballing calendar after the addition of the expanded Club World Cup last summer, so there’ll be a lot of players who’ve been playing almost non-stop for two years now.

There’s only been a short break since the end of the club season, so it might be harder for some of the traditionally ‘bigger’ national teams to do as well as usual if their players haven’t really been able to recover.