The Big Money And Even Bigger Dreams Of A World Cup

Every four years, countries battle on the football pitch to be crowned world champions. In June, five African nations will be at the FIFA World Cup in Russia playing for pride, glory and financial rewards.

- Firdose Moonda

Not only is the Football World Cup the most watched sporting event in the world, it is also among the most lucrative. It makes more money than any other sporting spectacle apart from the Olympic Games and attracts more eyeballs than anything else on the small screen.

The 2014 World Cup reached almost half the global population of seven billion people, according to a report released by FIFA and Kantar Media.

In-home television audiences were reported at 3.2 billion people, with the final viewed by a billion people – and everything about the World Cup just keeps super-sizing. 

In 2026, 48 teams will compete at the World Cup, 16 more than the current field of 32; 80 matches will be played, 18 more than the current 64; and revenue will skyrocket with FIFA’s early calculations suggesting a more than $700 million hike in profits.

While those eye-popping numbers can be ogled at and analyzed over the next eight years, for this year’s tournament, FIFA has continued the trend of increasing the prize money for the World Cup, which has happened for the last five editions.

In 2018, rewards have increased by 40%.

A total of $400 million will be shared among the 32 participating teams, with each team set to finish with a minimum of $9.5 million ($1.5 million in preparation fee and $8 million for a group stage exit). 

The winners will take home $38 million. 

That’s a lot of money to dish out for an organization that spent a significant time between May 2015 and February 2016 muddling through a massive corruption scandal, which resulted in 18 people and two corporations being indicted and a complete change of the guard.

Sepp Blatter’s 17-year reign at FIFA was ended when he was slapped with an eight-year ban (since reduced to six years) for an unethical offering of a cash gift and conflicts of interest.