Man City or Chelsea could earn millions at the Club World Cup

The winner will take home up to 125 million US dollars

Manchester City or Chelsea could claim almost £100million in prize money if they win this summer’s Club World Cup.

Tournament organisers FIFA released more details on Wednesday morning of how the one billion US dollars (£774.6m) of prize money on offer to competing clubs would be split.

Football’s global governing body confirmed the winners of the new 32-team event will take home up to 125m US dollars, equivalent to £96.8m at current exchange rates.

Teams will share 525m US dollars (£406.7m) in participation fees, but this pot will not be distributed evenly.

The appearance fees going to Europe’s 12 clubs will be on a sliding scale from 38.19m US dollars (£29.6m) at the top end to 12.81m US dollars (£9.9m) at the bottom, determined by a ranking based on “sporting and commercial criteria”.

It is understood FIFA worked with the European Club Association on the distribution arrangements.

City and Chelsea qualified as winners of the 2023 and 2021 Champions League titles, respectively.

There is a sliding scale between continents too, with South America’s entrants each receiving 15.21m US dollars (£11.8m), while Auckland City, Oceania’s entrant, will receive 3.58m US dollars (£2.8m).

On top of that, there is a further 475m US dollars (£367.9m) available to reflect sporting performance at the tournament in the United States, where teams will play a maximum of seven matches. A group-stage win will be worth 2m US dollars (£1.5m) while 40m US dollars (£31m) is the prize on offer for winning the final.

The figures compare favourably with Champions League participation, where the competition winners could earn around 160m euros (£133.8m) this season, but would have had to play at least 15 matches.

FIFA has stressed it will not keep a single dollar from the Club World Cup, with all the money being ploughed back into the club game. It also hopes to be able to distribute up to 250m US dollars (£193.6m) in solidarity to non-participating clubs.

More details on who will benefit from that will be released after the tournament, which which will take place in the United States from June 14 to July 13.

In December it was announced FIFA had agreed a deal with streaming platform DAZN for the global broadcast rights to the Club World Cup, worth a reported 1bn US dollars (£774.6m).

FIFA has also secured sponsorship deals with Hisense, Coca-Cola, AB InBev and Bank of America.

The tournament’s birth has been a troubled one, and has been seen as the tipping point which prompted player unions and domestic leagues to launch ongoing legal actions against what they see as FIFA’s failure to consult on the international match calendar.

There is also concern among Europe’s leagues about the potentially distortive impact of prize money from international club tournaments on competitive balance at domestic level.

Published: 26/03/2025 by Radio NewsHub