The United States men earned U.S. Soccer $16 million in prize money from FIFA for making the round of 16 at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, where the Americans lost 4-1 to Belgium.
The prize money will be split evenly between the 26 men on the U.S. roster and the 26 women who make next year’s U.S. roster for the 2027 Women’s World Cup, should the Americans qualify.
Men’s and women’s players equally share World Cup prize money under terms of the collective bargaining agreements that were ratified by U.S. Soccer with both national teams in 2022. Those agreements were ratified following nearly six years of the women’s national team publicly fighting and suing U.S. Soccer for equal pay.
Per the CBAs, U.S. Soccer keeps 20% of the prize money from each World Cup, with the remaining 80% split equally between the men’s and women’s players who make their respective World Cup rosters. That 40% equates to $6.4 million per team, and $246,153.85 per player.
The same split between the federations and the men’s and women’s national teams will apply to the 2027 Women’s World Cup prize money collected by the United States — with some catches, of course.
The first and most obvious point of clarification is that the U.S. women must first qualify for the 2027 World Cup. While that is widely assumed as a given for the four-time World Cup champions, they still need to defeat El Salvador on Nov. 27 in a win-and-in Concacaf quarterfinal.
Second, the above per-player payout for players should grow slightly (again assuming qualification by the U.S. women).
The collective bargaining agreements require payment of the men’s players’ prizes by the federation within 31 days of U.S. Soccer’s receipt of the money from FIFA.
However, since the U.S. women still need to qualify for the World Cup, and the 26 players on that roster would not be confirmed until next spring, the $6.4 million due to women’s players is to be placed in an interest-bearing account, according to the CBAs.
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The interest earned on that money would then be split equally between the 52 World Cup players (26 men this year and 26 women next year), as would the prize money that the U.S. women earn in 2027. All of that would need to be paid by U.S. Soccer within 31 days of the federation’s receipt of payment from FIFA for the 2027 Women’s World Cup.
The prize money totals for the 2027 Women’s World Cup are also yet to be confirmed.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino has previously stated his intent to equal men’s and women’s prize money by the 2027 World Cup. Those comments came before the dramatic increase to prize money at this year’s expanded men’s edition, which nearly doubled from four years ago (the total number of teams also increased from 32 to 48, however).
The 2023 Women’s World Cup paid a total of $110 million, up from $30 million in 2019.
All the above only accounts for FIFA prize money.
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U.S. Soccer pays both its men’s and women’s players $10,000 per World Cup match regardless of outcome.
Had the U.S. men defeated Belgium on Monday and advanced to the quarterfinals, they would have collected $20 million in prize money, which would have left $8 million for each of the men’s and women’s national team.
The U.S. men last made the quarterfinals in the 2002 World Cup.
The U.S. women were eliminated in the round of 16 for the first time in 2023 after previously finishing third or better in every prior World Cup. The reward for that 2023 finish from FIFA was $1.87 million.
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The U.S. women have won four World Cups, including back-to-back titles in 2015 and 2019. The 2019 title fell in the middle of their six-year dispute with the federation.
Prize money for each 2026 Men’s World Cup team was increased from what was originally announced in December, a FIFA spokesperson confirmed to ESPN. Additional funding was announced in April following the FIFA Congress in Vancouver, although the exact updated prize money totals were not explicitly spelled out at the time.
ESPN confirmed that the updated prize totals for the 2026 Men’s World Cup are as follows:
: $51 million
: $34 million
: $30 million
: $28 million
: $20 million
: $16 million
: $12 million
: $10 million
ESPN writer Jeff Carlisle contributed to this report.
