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.
World Cup 2026
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.
Match Details
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).
Tournament Impact
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.
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.
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