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The prize money available at the 2026 World Cup is a record-breaking $871 million (£662m).
Fifa initially announced that the total pot would be $727m (£552m), which was already a 50% increase on the funds distributed at the 2022 tournament in Qatar.

But in May they announced a further increase to the pot, by increasing the base participation prize and the preparation fee, bringing it to the new total.
The prize money is split into performance-based rewards and non performance-based financial support.
So how are the rewards broken down?
The further teams progress in the tournament, the more they are rewarded financially.
Fifa will award teams finishing in each position as follows:

Winners: $50m (£38m)

Runners-up: $33m (£25m)

3rd place: $29m (£22m)

4th place: $27m (£20m)

5th-8th place: $19m (£14m)

9th-16th place: $15m (£11m)

17th-32nd place: $11m (£8m)

33rd-48th place: $10m (£7m)

These payouts will form $671m of the $871m on offer in the prize pot, with the remaining $200m (£152m) being paid out among teams regardless of performance.

[Getty Images]
The remaining money will be spread evenly across all participating teams in the form of:

Preparation money: $2.5m per nation

Additional team contributions: over $16m

This means each team is guaranteed at least $12.5m for taking part in the tournament when combined with the minimum $10m qualification fee.
Preparation money is to contribute towards costs such as training camps and travel for squads pre-tournament.
Fifa describes ‘additional team contributions’ as ‘subsidies for team delegation costs and increased team ticketing allocations’, with the aim of reducing financial disparity between nations when paying for the costs associated with playing in the World Cup, such as travel, logistics and administration.
This article is the latest from BBC Sport’s Ask Me Anything team.

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