The World Cup is projected to make US$13bn for the coffers of world football’s governing body, FIFA, providing the sport with riches that are well beyond the wildest dreams of many other codes.
While some of it goes to the champagne lifestyle that soccer administrators reward themselves with, FIFA ploughs most of the money back into the game, be it in the form of grants or development money.
Qualifying for the World Cup is a massive boon for the 48 national associations who will be competing at the finals in Canada, Mexico, and the United States, including South Africa.
Only last month, at their Congress in Vancouver, Canada, FIFA announced they would be handing over 15 per cent more than they had originally planned to the participating nations after concerns expressed by several European countries that the high costs of travel, operations, and tax in the United States would result in them losing money from participating in the tournament.
As a result, national teams competing in the one-month event have seen their preparation money rise from $1.5 million to $2.5 million.
Qualification compensation has been increased from $9 million to $10 million, meaning a direct income of $12.5 million for SAFA, which is over R200 million and should go a long way to helping the association improve the game around the country.
FIFA said contributions towards team delegation expenses and increased ticket allotments across the 48 teams would go up more than $16 million, and the remaining additional income that FIFA receives will be split among all 211 national federations.
In total, FIFA will increase payments to teams taking part in the 2026 World Cup to $871 million.
Clubs also benefit from a separate pot of money, and in the case of Bafana Bafana, it will be happy days for Mamelodi Sundowns and Orlando Pirates, who provided the bulk of the squad.
Clubs earn money for every day their players are at the World Cup, between US$12 000–$15 000 per player, per day, from the start of national team camp until the day of elimination from the tournament.
Therefore, the longer Bafana Bafana stay in the tournament, the more those clubs providing players to the squad will earn.
The FIFA Club Benefits Programme rewards any club that releases a player selected to represent their nation at the World Cup but compensates not only the club where each participating player is registered at the time of the tournament, but also any other clubs where such players applied their trade during the two-year “qualification” phase that precedes the tournament.
There were no South African-based players at the last World Cup, but after Russia 2018, Chippa United were paid R3 million by FIFA because their goalkeeper, Daniel Akpeyi, was Nigeria’s third choice at the tournament.
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