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2023 Women's World Cup

Women’s World Cup prize money increases by over 300% as Infantino calls for equal pay in 2026-27

• Total prize pool jumps from $30M in 2019 to $110M in 2023; eight more teams in 2023
• 2022 Men’s World Cup featured $440M of total prize money
• Source: FIFA will pay $31M to teams for preparations, $11M to clubs for their players

Michael Chow-USA TODAY Sports

Prize money for the 2023 Women’s World Cup will increase by over 300% from the tournament’s previous edition four years ago.

The total prize pool will be $110 million USD, a source with knowledge confirmed to The Equalizer, an increase from a total pot of $30 million. FIFA president Gianni Infantino said on Thursday during his closing remarks of the 73rd FIFA Congress in Rwanda that he hopes to achieve equal pay in the next cycle of World Cups. Infantino, who was re-elected as president unopposed, said that a “specific portion” of the 2023 prize money would go directly to players, while referencing a total pool of about $150 million for the tournament.

FIFA will also pay about $31 million to teams for their preparations, and an additional $11 million to clubs for their players’ appearances at the World Cup, a source confirmed. FIFA began paying clubs for the first time around the 2019 World Cup.

This summer’s World Cup will see 32 teams compete for the first time in the women’s competition, up from 24 in 2019.

Infantino said that FIFA’s “ambition would be, of course, to be able to have equality in payments for the 2026 Men’s and 2027 Women’s World Cups. This is the objective that we set to ourselves.” In 2019, fans in the stadium at Lyon, France, drowned out the loudspeaker announcements of Infantino with chants of “equal pay” as the U.S. women accepted their winners’ medals.


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On Thursday, Infantino lamenting the low offers FIFA has received from broadcasters for the Women’s World Cup, implying that they share the blame in pay disparity. Media partners “have to do more,” he said, noting that offers were 10-to-100 times inferior to Men’s World Cup media rights, and that FIFA would not accept those.

“And at the same time, these same public broadcasters, who are paid by the taxpayers’ money, they criticize FIFA for not guaranteeing equal pay to men and women,” Infantino said. “You pay us 100 times less, whereby your viewing figures are very similar — maybe 20, 25% less — well offer us 20% less; offer us 50% less, but not 100% less.”


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Infantino said he is “confident” that equality can be achieved by then, but stopped short of saying it will certainly happen. He praised himself and the FIFA Council for the advancements made thus far.

“This will lead us to a path to equal pay,” Infantino said. “This journey has many steps. Step one and step two have already been taken by the FIFA Council. Step one is equal conditions and services for all men and women playing at a FIFA World Cup. This will be a reality already in 2023. Same conditions as World Cup 2022 will be for the players and coaching staff for the World Cup 2023.”

Infantino noted that the increase is also roughly 10 times more than the total pot of $15 million for the 2015 World Cup, from before when he came president.

A FIFA spokesperson declined to share what the 2023 World Cup winner will win. U.S. Soccer received $2 million for the women’s team’s 2015 World Cup triumph and $4 million when the team repeated as champions in 2019. That payment came a year after the French federation earned $38 million from a pot of $400. The men’s pot rose to $440 million in 2022, with winners Argentina taking $42 million. The Men’s World Cup will increase to 48 teams in 2026.


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