APART from the glory of being world champions and the shiny medals, Argentina and France are gunning for a huge cash prize at today’s Qatar 2022 World Cup final at the Lusail Stadium.
There is a staggering $440 million pot of money for all the 32 participating teams, with the champions taking home just short of 10 percent of it.
Whoever emerges the winners in today’s final showpiece will earn $42m, up from the grand prize of $38m from four years ago.
The runners-up today will take home $30m, while Croatia earned $27m for claiming the bronze medal last night.
Morocco, the history-making team that reached Africa’s first-ever World Cup semi-finals, will return home to adulation in Rabat and a sizable bonus of $25m from FIFA.
The lowest any team earned in Qatar is $9m, which is guaranteed for the 16 that were eliminated at the group stage: Cameroon, Ghana, Tunisia, Ecuador, Qatar, Wales, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Denmark, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Costa Rica, Serbia and Uruguay.
The eight teams that ended their journey in the round of 16 all got $13m each. These are African champions Senegal, United States of America, South Korea, Spain, Australia, Poland, Japan and Switzerland.
The Netherlands, Brazil, Portugal and England, who all fell at the quarter-final stage, earned $17 million each.
The World Cup prize money has steadily increased over the years.
The winners received $8m in 2002, meaning there has been a $34m difference in just 20 years – four editions.
The biggest jump was from $8m in 2002 to $20m in 2006, an increase of well over 100 percent.
