The 2018 FIFA World Cup, which kicks off next summer in 11 Russian cities, will put $400 million in prize money up for grabs, the FIFA press service announced on Friday.
The sum of the prize money for the global quadrennial football championship has been approved at the FIFA Council session, which was held on Friday in the Indian city of Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta).
“FIFA’s strategic body approved an increase in the prize money for the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia to a total amount of USD 400 million – 12% up from the USD 358 million of the 2014 edition,” the FIFA said in its statement.
Reigning World Champions Germany received $35 million after winning the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. World’s Vice Champions Argentina packed $25 million and bronze medalists from The Netherlands were paid $22 million.
The statement added that the meeting in Kolkata covered a wide array of topics and saw the FIFA Council passing a number of important decisions.
After successfully hosting the FIFA Confederations Cup this summer, Russia is now in full-swing preparations to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
The country selected 11 host cities to be the venues for the matches of the 2018 World Cup and they are Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan, Saransk, Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Samara.
Meanwhile, the 2018 World Cup champion will get US$ 38 million from a prize fund FIFA has increased by 12 percent to US$ 400 million.
FIFA says each of the 32 competing national federations will get at least US$ 8 million, the same as in 2014 when the overall prize fund was US$ 358 million.
In 2014, World Cup champion Germany received US$ 35 million and runner-up Argentina got US$ 25 million.
Next year, the runner-up will also get a US$ 3 million increase to US$ 28 million.
FIFA says the third- and fourth-place teams will each get a US$ 2 million increase to US$ 24 million and US$ 22 million, respectively.
The quarter-finalists will each get US$ 16 million, also a US$ 2 million increase, and teams eliminated in the last 16 get a US$ 3 million increase to US$ 12 million.
-(with additional reports from wires & ghanacrusader.com)
