Chelsea set to bag £87m from Club World Cup victory
Chelsea will add another £7.3m to their already ballooning prize purse if they win the Club World Cup on Sunday in New Jersey.
The Blues will head to the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on Sunday knowing they’ve already bagged around £80m from the competition Fifa president Gianni Infantino described as the “pinnacle” of club football.
But that impressive haul could grow further with a win on the East Coast this weekend, in a match that will be attended by Donald Trump after the US President confirmed he’d travel to the showpiece game.
Just qualifying for the final added £22m to Chelsea’s fund, an amount equating to over a third of the £60m cost of new signing Joao Pedro.
The prize money for the winning side was initially set at £97m but exchange rates between sterling and dollars means that figure has lowered to a still hefty £92m.
Chelsea in the money
Teams were paid varying participation fees, based on “sporting and commercial criteria”, with many European teams getting much more than teams from other continents.
The highest-ranked European sides received nearly £30m for their entry while the lowest got just shy of £10m. That trickles down among the continents until Oceania, whose clubs received £2.6m apiece for entering the tournament.
Initial prize pools, before changes in the exchange rate, saw a total purse of £743m for the expanded club competition taking place in the USA.
On top of the participation fee, clubs got £1.5m for winning a group match and £800,000 for a draw.
Those that reached the knockouts saw nearly £6m added to their fund while quarter-finalists were topped up by another £10m.
Semi-finalists got an additional £16.2m while finalists – like Premier League club Chelsea – were thrown another £22m.
It means Chelsea is in line for a £87m payday should they lift the plate-like trophy on Sunday.