FIFA announced on Wednesday that it would pay out $1 billion in appearance and prize money to the 32 teams who will be competing in the first-ever expanded Club World Cup this summer. As one of those 32 teams, the Seattle Sounders are slated to receive at least $9.55 million, as will the four other teams representing Concacaf.
That’s a lot of money — more than they’ve ever paid for a transfer fee and the rough equivalent of the annual revenue for a front-of-shirt sponsor — but where that money will go and how it will be spent is still a somewhat complicated puzzle.
Jeremiah Oshan
While there remains a ton of uncertainty about that money, here’s what we know about it:
Am I misremembering or is that a lot less money than they were originally promised?
I know exactly what you mean, but not exactly. Way back when the expanded tournament was first announced, there were rumors of a $50 million guarantee for each of the participating teams. That rumor proved pretty sticky and was being regularly repeated until a few months ago, long after it became apparent to those of us doing actual reporting that the top European teams might be the only clubs guaranteed to get anywhere near that amount.
As it is, the biggest European teams will be guaranteed less than $40 million but will likely bring in closer to $50M-$60M apiece, with the winner potentially getting about $125 million. That’s obviously real money for just about any club in the world and a bit more than even the UEFA Champions League winner will take home this year.
But every team isn’t getting that much. Even the smaller European teams are “only” guaranteed a little less than $13 million and the South American teams will each get about $15 million. Everyone outside those two federations gets even less. The teams from Concacaf, Asia and Africa are each guaranteed $9.55 million and Oceania’s Auckland City will get $3.55 million, which is honestly a massive payday for a club whose players are mostly semi-pro.
That said, all the teams are playing for the same performance bonuses. Each team gets $1 million for every group-stage tie and $2 million for each group-stage win. They’ll get $7.5 million for getting out of the group stage, $13.125 for making the quarterfinals, $21 million for making the semifinals, $30 million for making the final and $40 million for winning it.
How much of that will the players get?
That’s apparently still being discussed. Based on the current CBA that was signed in 2021, each participating MLS team’s players would be entitled to share a $1 million bonus. But that was also signed before any MLS team had competed in the Club World Cup, let alone conceived of playing in one that came with this sort of money involved.
We asked Sounders goalkeeper Stefan Frei about it and as excited as he was to be playing, he also noted that players shouldn’t be asked to do more work for the same pay.
“I hope the players who are participating get their fair share,” he said. “Hopefully we can settle on something that makes sense for everybody. It’s a huge opportunity and something we should all be excited about.”
