So, What Do You Get if You Win a Women’s World Cup?

In case you haven’t noticed yet, this website has been absolutely consumed by the excitement of the Women’s World Cup. Call us Matildashacker, I guess. We’re approaching the pointy end of the competition with only four teams left in the tournament (one of them being our very own Matildas), so you might find yourself wondering, what is in it for the winners?

Aside from the obvious bragging rights that come with winning a World Cup, there is also a pool of prize money to be inherited, just like with any other major sporting tournament.

If you’re curious about how much money the winners of the Women’s World Cup take home, here’s a quick breakdown.

Women’s World Cup winners: What’s the prize?

If you’ve been following along for some time, you may know that FIFA announced earlier this year that it would be tripling the prize pool for the Women’s World Cup competition, with the intention of matching the amount in the men’s competition ($656 million) by 2027.

As Optus Sport shared in March, the entire package was boosted to $226 million (USD 152 million) in 2023, with the prize pool now sitting at $165 million (USD110 million). In 2019 it was set at USD30 million, and in 2015 the total was USD15 million.

In 2023, teams who qualify for the FIFA Women’s World Cup take home approximately $2.4 million (converted from USD1,560,000), and the figures increase from that point.

Here’s the full Women’s World Cup prize pool break down, per FIFA:

Round of 16: USD1,870,000 (about $2.9 million)
Quarter-finals: US$2,180,000 (about $3.4 million)
Fourth: US$2,455,000 (about $3.8 million)
Third: US$2,610,000 (about $4 million)
Runners-up: US$3,015,000 (about $4.7 million)
Champions: US$4,290,000 (about $6.6 million)

FIFA also announced that in 2023 there is a dedicated payment amount allocated to players in the tournament, too.

Here’s how that allocation is broken down for the Women’s World Cup:

Group stage: USD30,000
Round of 16: USD60,000
Quarter Final: USD90,000
4th Place: USD165,000
3rd Place: USD180,000
2nd Place: USD195,000
Champions: USD270,000

This is a rather big deal, as it means players are guaranteed payment for their participation. As the New York Times has shared, Alex Morgan, co-captain of the U.S. team, said that “Each player making at least $30,000 is huge, because usually that money goes to federations and [Women’s World Cup] players don’t see any or much of it”.

In short, previous World Cups saw complete payouts go to the football federations behind the teams, and it was up to these federations to decide how to divvy the money up between themselves and the players.

Looking at Australia specifically, you can find a fact sheet breaking down the approach to payment for World Cup players as agreed upon by Professional Footballers Australia (PFA) and Football Australia (FFA) here.

Oh, and in addition to the above, we might be landing a public holiday, too. So, that’s a nice extra perk.