Argentina wins the FIFA World Cup championship

 World Cup champions, Argentina will earn US$42 million in prize money for their football federation.

France, the losing team in yesterday’s final will get US$30 million from a FIFA prize fund of US$440 million.

When France won the World Cup in 2018, the country’s federation got US$38 million from FIFA’s US$400 million prize fund.

Not all the money goes to players, but they are expected to get a good bit of it.

Every national football federation gets at least US$9 million in prize money for playing at this year’s World Cup, plus US$1.5 million toward the costs of preparing for the tournament.

Third-placed Croatia earned US$27 million in prize money. Morocco, which ended up in fourth, will be paid US$25 million.

FIFA’s total revenue for the past four years was $7.5 billion. Most of it came from broadcast and sponsorship deals, plus ticket and hospitality sales.

FIFA expects to earn $11 billion in 2026 with a 48-team men’s World Cup in North America set to deliver a big rise in revenue.

The four-year budget was presented last Thursday to the ruling FIFA Council which foresees almost 50% raise in income mainly tied to broadcasting and sponsor deals for the men’s World Cup, plus ticketing and hospitality at a tournament which will use several NFL stadiums.

FIFA typically makes conservative budget estimates and ends up overshooting targets.

The $7.5 billion revenue announced in Qatar last month for the 2019-22 commercial cycle was $1 billion more than the forecast budget.

There is also uncertainty over exactly how many games will be played and sold to broadcasters at the 48-team World Cup.