How World Cup Money Is Shared

The most valuable and ex­pensive World Cup ever will earn billions of dol­lars for FIFA, millions for the competing countries and thousands for the more than 700 players selected.

From the near $4.5 billion in revenue from broadcasters, sponsors, hospitality and licens­ing deals, FIFA distributes just over $400 million to the 32 na­tional federations taking part in the tournament.

Here is how some of that mon­ey breaks down:

FIRST PRIZE

The winner in the final will get $35 million in prize money paid to its national federation, which can spend the money as it choos­es.

That’s $5 million more than the $30 million Spain took home from South Africa four years ago.The runner up gets $25 million (up from $24 mil­lion in 2010), while the third- and fourth-place teams get $22 million and $20 million, respectively.

PLAYERS’ SHARE

FIFA lets national fed­erations choose how to reward the 23 players on their squads.

The German federation last year promised all 23 players a 300,000-euro ($408,000) bonus for win­ning a fourth World Cup title.

That is the equivalent of a few weeks’ basic wage for the German play­ers that are employed by wealthy European clubs like Arsenal, Bayern Mu­nich and Real Madrid.

PRIZE POOL

Prize money for the other 28 federations elimi­nated before the semifinals stayed at the same level as in 2010.

Quarterfinalists get $14 million, round of 16 losers get $9 million and those that failed to advance from the group get $8 million.

How do they spend it? Four years ago, FIFA ac­knowledged it did not know if the $8 million paid to North Korea would stay within football there.

In addition, FIFA paid $1.5 million in advance to each of the 32 federations to prepare for the tourna­ment — an increase of $500,000 from the 2010 tournament

That should have helped pay for training camps be­fore arriving in Brazil and settle some players’ bonus issues that have tradition­ally dogged World Cup teams, especially from Africa.

PAY TO PLAY

As usual, problems over paying bonuses exposed the financial problems of African federations and a fundamental distrust many players have for elected football officials.

Three of the five African teams; Cameroon, Ghana and Nigeria; were distract­ed by payment issues.

Cameroon’s squad ar­rived a day late after re­fusing to board a plane, forcing their federation to take out a loan to ensure players got paid.

Ghana’s government flew in $3 million in cash — after Brazil’s govern­ment waived laws on moving currency — to avert a threatened strike by players who were report­edly promised between $75,000 and $100,000.

Nigerian players can­celed a training session before its round of 16 loss against France to ensure their bonus payments were upheld. They were prom­ised $10,000 each for every group stage win, and could have earned $102,500 in total for winning the title.

FIFA PROMISE

FIFA secretary general, Jerome Valcke, said it was “sad” that bonus issues dis­tracted from the football.

He pledged that, in the future, FIFA will seek writ­ten agreements from fed­erations that players are contracted to receive their money before arriving in Russia in 2018.

CLUBS’ SHARE

Clubs that released the 736 players taking part in the World Cup will also get their share of FIFA’s rev­enues.

FIFA has set aside $70 million to distribute at a rate of $2,800 per player per day that each was on World Cup duty. The mon­ey is shared between each player’s current club and; any other, he played for in the two previous years dur­ing qualification matches.culled