Football: The World Cup windfall heading New Zealand’s way

The biggest impact of New Zealand’s return to the world football’s biggest stage could be felt off the pitch.

With Fifa offering a record prize pool for the 2026 World Cup, millions of dollars is set to flow to players, clubs and grassroots football through the All Whites’ participation in the tournament.

Prize money for the World Cup, which kicks off on Friday, has increased by more than 50 percent since the last tournament in 2022 after Fifa agreed to a record US$871 million (NZ$1.5 billion) financial contribution to the tournament in April.

By qualifiying for the World Cup for the third time, New Zealand Football is guaranteed to pocket at least US$10 million (NZ$17.25 million).

Under the All Whites’ players collective, the 26 who were named in the squad will get 40 percent of any prize money earned throughout the tournament.

That means each player will receive at least around $240,000 for representing the country at the biggest football tournament ever with an exit at the group stage being worth US$9 million (NZ$15.5 million)

Should the All Whites progress out of their group for the first time, and into the new round of 32 at the expanded tournament, the total prize money increases to US$11m (NZ$18.9m).

The third place finisher gets NZ$50.5m, runner-up $57m and the champions $86m.

Outside of the prize money, each of the 48 qualified nations were given $4.3m to help with preparation for the tournament. For the All Whites this included a camp in Florida to help acclimatise to the conditions.

Club payments

It is not just each national body, or the players, that gets a financial boost from a World Cup.

It is also lucrative for a club to have players named in a World Cup squad.

Every club that has a player in a national team through the World Cup qualification process and the World Cup proper gets paid for every day that they are released for the tournament, via the Fifa Club Benefit Programme.

The compensation runs until a team is eliminated from the tournament and has a daily rate of approximately $19,000.

Auckland FC has five players in the All Whites and if the New Zealanders are ousted at the group stage the A-League club will get about $2m.

Despite forward Jesse Randall already signing up with Dundee United for next season, he was with Auckland throughout the World Cup process so it is the A-League champions who benefit.

For the 2026 World Cup cycle, there has been a rule change that results in clubs being compensated for players featuring in qualification games, as well as the tournament itself.

So Auckland will also get some money from Logan Rogerson being involved in the World Cup qualifiers in late 2024 and early 2025 despite the winger not being named in the World Cup squad.

Wellington Phoenix have a trio of players in the World Cup squad Alex Rufer, Tim Payne and Sarpreet Singh who is on loan from Serbian top-flight club FK TSC Bačka Topola so they will be getting a little less than Auckland but will also get some compensation from Kosta Barbarouses who played qualification games while at the Phoenix before transferring to Western Sydney Wanderers.

Baintree Town, who are now in the sixth tier of English football, will be pleased that Tommy Smith got named for his second World Cup as the club will get payments.

What does New Zealand Football do with the money?

After the players get their share, New Zealand Football has millions of dollars to re-invest in the game.

Following the last World Cup in 2010 the New Zealand Football Foundation was set up as a permanent legacy fund.

At that time the Foundation was given $4m of the prize money for grassroots football.

In 2011 in the inaugural grant round, the Foundation awarded over $100,000 to 30 applicants to pay for expert coaching, improve facilities and talent development.

New Zealand Football’s National Talent Centre received the largest grant at $37,550, from that first round, which meant 280 young players had assistance towards the cost of attending.

This year NZF will get more money than they did 16 years ago and chief executive officer Andrew Pragnell said in March last year the day after the team qualified for the global tournament that the money was a helping hand for the organisation.

“While we are a much more robust organisation than we have been in the past and we don’t rely solely on this prize money to survive, it allows us to more fundamentally invest into our federations, invest further into our competitions, invest further into our national teams and in particular give this group of players the resources they deserve.

“Which I think all Kiwis want to see because this is a group that can break history in terms of the world cup.”

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.