FIFA Club World Cup 2025 - Revenue Distribution

Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)

So the best football club on the planet is…. Chelsea.

Many will argue otherwise, but we can make that assertion after the Blues defeated Paris-Saint German 3-0 to win the inaugural edition of the shiny new FIFA Cub World Cup.

Given that PSG had won the Champions League, while Chelsea were victorious in the far less regarded Conference League, this has to be considered as something of a surprise, though the result was thoroughly deserved on the day.

So how did FIFA’s extravaganza work out?

Format

The greatly expanded format featured 32 clubs, compared to just seven in the previous version in 2023.

Europe was awarded 12 slots, which was twice as much as the next highest continent, namely South America with six. The confederations for Africa, Asia and CONCACAF (North America, South America and Caribbean) were all allocated four slots, while Oceania was given one slot. The final place went to the host association, so CONCACAF ended up with five teams this time round.

Good or Bad?

It’s fair to say that the greatly expanded format of the Club World Cup has split opinions.

Former Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp, now head of global soccer at Red Bull, was typically forthright in his criticism, “'The Club World Cup is the worst idea ever implemented in football”, adding, “This World Cup happens at the wrong moment for the wrong reasons.”

In contrast, former Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger, now FIFA’s chief of global soccer development, perhaps understandably supported his employer’s initiative, “I feel a Club World Cup is needed. If you make enquiries to all the clubs who were here, then 100 percent of answers would be that they would want to do it again.”

As would be expected, FIFA President Gianni Infantino believes that the tournament has been a great success, “Maybe some criticise it a little bit, but it’s something new. It’s something special. It’s a real World Cup with the best teams and the best players.”

Fans of clubs like Liverpool, Arsenal and Barcelona might not agree with El Presidente’s assessment, but European countries were restricted to two representatives, so they were excluded this time round.

Size of the Prize

Thanks to the generosity of streaming platform DAZN, who paid a thumping great $1 bln for a TV rights deal, even though other broadcasters had shown little interest, FIFA were able to create a massive prize pot for the event of the same amount.

Some cynical observers have noted that shortly after the agreement was signed, the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) bought a 10% minority stake in DAZN for, you guessed it, $1 bln.

A week later, FIFA confirmed that Saudi Arabia would be the hosts of the 2034 men’s World Cup, though to be fair they were the only bidders.

The $1 bln revenue is split between a participation pillar of $475m and a sporting performance pillar (i.e. prize money) of $525m.

To place this into perspective, the FIFA Club World Cup’s €857m ($1 bln) revenue is around 40% of the UEFA Champion League’s €2.5 bln, but is more than the Europa League €565m and Europa Conference €285m combined.

The prize money would have been even higher in terms of Euros if the Dollar had not tanked in the last few months. For example, using the January high, the $1 bln prize pot would have been worth around €975m.

Revenue by Club

At the tournament’s conclusion, the two finalists have earned more than $100m, which is a pretty good return for a month’s work, as winners Chelsea got a chunky $115m, which will no doubt go towards their transfer war chest, while runners-up Paris Saint-Germain received $107m.

Six of the top eight earnings went to European clubs, including Real Madrid €83m, Bayern Munich €58m, Borussia Dortmund €52m and Manchester City €52m.

Brazilian clubs also did very well with their four representatives all finishing in the top 13 clubs by income: Fluminense €61m, Palmeiras €40m, Flamengo €28m and Botafogo €27m.

Six clubs got less than €10m for their efforts with the lowest of all being Auckland City’s €4.6m.