Club World Cup Semis Are Battle to Make Richest Soccer Final Ever

The Club World Cup gears up for its final three matches this week with four teams left standing: European giants Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, and Chelsea, and Brazilian side Fluminense.

PSG, which faces team Real Madrid on Wednesday afternoon, is the only team that also made the European Champions League semis. Chelsea didn’t make the Champions League last season, while Real Madrid lost in the quarterfinals, and FIFA avoided an all-European final with Fluminense. The Brazilian side faces Chelsea on Tuesday afternoon. All matches for the rest of the tournament will be at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, which will also host the 2026 World Cup final.

While FIFA is celebrating its big-name final four, those teams and the eliminated ones are enjoying their new cash. FIFA offered a $1 billion purse for its new 32-team tournament, with hefty participation incentives for European clubs ranging from $12.81 million to $38.19 million. South American clubs received $15.21 million to show up, followed by $9.55 million for North and Central American, Asian, and African teams. The representative from Oceania, Auckland City FC, made $3.58 million.

On top of the $525 million distributed in participation, $475 million remained on the table for winning. Each team earned $2 million for a win and $1 million for a draw in the group stage, $7.5 million for the round of 16, and $13.125 million for the quarterfinals.

The tournament has now entered its most lucrative stage. Each semifinalist gets $21 million. The July 13 final will pay $40 million to the champion and $30 million to the runner-up, making it the richest soccer final ever.

By reaching the semis, Fluminense has already bagged more than $60 million. FIFA has not said exactly how it’s distributed its participation payments to European teams, but the three European semifinalists have each made at least $60 million at the tournament, and likely closer to $80 million.

The financial windfall will come in handy for the major European sides. Chelsea, owned by a holding company led by Americans Todd Boehly and new Lakers owner Mark Walter, received a $36.5 million fine Friday from UEFA for breaching financial rules, one it’ll easily pay off thanks to the Club World Cup. Or, the club could use that money to help cover the transfer fees of Liam Delap (about $40 million) and Jamie Gittens (about $75 million), who it picked up this offseason. Even Manchester City, which lost earlier in the knockout round, made more than $50 million for two weeks of play.

“By going into this competition and earning these sums of money, it’s giving you yet another advantage over the other teams in your domestic leagues,” Pat Nevin, former Chelsea and Everton winger and BBC Sports writer, told Front Office Sports last month. “And it’s a gigantic advantage, especially if you make the guts of $100 million out of it.”

While the players are competing for tens of millions of dollars, FIFA has been slashing ticket prices to watch those matches. In the span of 72 hours in the days before Chelsea-Fluminense, FIFA lowered standard-ticket prices from nearly $475 to just $13.40. The day before the match, the get-in price was just above $40. Tickets for PSG against Real Madrid still sat around $200 on Monday.