Clubs around the world left fuming as FIFA yet to pay £185m Club World Cup windfall

Martin Macdonald

• 20 Feb 2026 06:45 CST
• 3 min read

Nieuws

Football teams that didn't receive an invite to the Club World Cup last summer were naturally left angry that they could be left behind financially by the clubs that were invited to participate in the tournament.

With a prize pot of $1 billion (around €850m) available at the Club World Cup, it was an extremely lucrative competition for those involved - especially eventual winners, Chelsea.

The teams invited were given a summer cash injection that most other clubs around the world didn't receive.

FIFA's aim to combat this was by keeping a £185m kitty to spread among every top-flight team in the world that did not play in the tournament.

Chelsea 🆚 PSG#FIFACWC pic.twitter.com/FfB5cdxffZ

— FIFA Club Football (@FIFACF) July 14, 2025

If shared equally, that works out at just £50,000 per team.

Seven months after the conclusion of the Club World Cup, no team has received any funds and the Guardian reports that FIFA has still not decided how the money will be allocated.

Clubs in bigger leagues aren't sweating over the payment but those is lower-ranked leagues are becoming frustrated.

"An executive from one of Europe’s smaller leagues told the Guardian there had been no clear answers about when their clubs will be paid despite continued inquiries," the outlet reports.

"In environments where domestic television rights deals are increasingly precarious, and in certain cases nonexistent, a five-figure windfall has the potential to be a lifeline."

A source from the Union of European Clubs (UEC), which represents more than 140 non-elite clubs around Europe, said: “UEC as an organisation has not heard anything and no member clubs we have consulted with have heard anything either."

Club World Cup payments

Chelsea’s win over PSG means they earned roughly €97m (£84m) through Club World Cup prize money.

The Blues earned a participation fee of €24.6m, while they made an additional €72.4m through performance prize money.

Their earnings were unsurprisingly the highest of any participating club, with runners-up PSG making roughly €90.5m.

An amount of $525m was awarded to all clubs for participation and $475m was awarded depending on how far a team progressed in the tournament.

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