Manchester City and Chelsea could earn up to £97m in prize money from this year’s Club World Cup.
The overall prize fund, shared between all 32 teams based on different factors, will be £775m, with £407m divided between all participating clubs and £368m awarded on a performance-related basis.
By comparison, last season’s prize money in the Premier League ranged from £175.9m for winners City to the £109.7m earned by bottom-placed Sheffield United.
Money awarded for participation is weighted by a ranking based on sporting and commercial criteria, meaning European clubs will earn more for taking part than teams from other continents.
The top-ranked European team by Fifa’s metrics will receive £29.6m just for participating – and they would secure the maximum prize available of around £97m for winning all of their group-stage games and then going on to win the tournament.
A group-stage win will net a team £1.5m, with £5.8m for reaching the last 16, £10.2m for reaching the quarter-finals, £16.3m for reaching the semi-finals, and £31m for winning the final.
As a result, Manchester City and Chelsea, the two Premier League sides in the competition who qualified thanks to their recent Champions League wins, could earn the biggest prize money ever awarded in club football over a seven-game format.
The expanded Club World Cup will take place in the United States from 15 June to 13 July.
Previously an annual tournament contested by seven teams, it will now feature 32 clubs and take place once every four years.
“The distribution model of the Fifa Club World Cup reflects the pinnacle of club football,” said Fifa president Gianni Infantino.
Teams from each of the six international football confederations will participate: Asia (AFC), Africa (Caf), North and Central America (Concacaf), South America (Conmebol), Oceania (OFC) and Europe (Uefa).
There are 12 places available for European teams – the highest number of any of the confederations – and they are decided by clubs’ Champions League performances over the past four seasons.
Only two clubs per country can qualify, so 2022 Champions League finalists Liverpool are not included but 2021 winners Chelsea and 2023 winners City are.
Other European teams have qualified through a Uefa ranking system determined by clubs’ performances over the four seasons.
‘Tournament now looks very worthwhile for biggest clubs involved’
The success of this tournament, which has barely registered on the global football consciousness so far, largely hinges on clubs such as Chelsea, Manchester City, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich.
They have negotiated substantial revenue to be part of it – they should earn a minimum of £40m if they progress from the group stage and can earn up to £97m for winning it. That revenue is comparable to the money earned from taking part in the Champions League.
But not all clubs are equal. The smaller European clubs to have qualified, such as RB Salzburg, will only get around £15m if they qualify from the group. South American clubs such as Boca Juniors, River Plate and Flamengo are due a similar sum.
Teams in North America, Asia, Africa and Auckland City, the only club from Oceania, will get even less.
Of course, the biggest clubs will argue they are already stretched in terms of the football calendar and will miss out on pre-season revenue but this tournament now looks very worthwhile for those involved.
Those revenues will give Chelsea and Manchester City more room to stay on the right side of profit and sustainability regulations, but they could distort the competition with smaller leagues in Europe and beyond, in the same way that Champions League participation gives those involved a major financial advantage.
Fifa said this tournament will help grow the game beyond Europe and distribute money to clubs outside the traditional elite.
But the elite have leveraged their importance in negotiations to get a bigger share of the total prize fund.