FIFA Won’t Give Equal Pay at the 2027 Women’s World Cup

As if the U.S. women’s national team wasn’t already gunning for global glory next summer, the stakes just got even higher.

The four-time women’s World Cup champions (1991, 1999, 2015, 2019) were utterly humiliated three years ago on an international stage that they have notoriously commanded for decades. The USWNT crashed out in the round of 16 of the 2023 World Cup, losing on penalty kicks to Sweden to mark the team’s earliest-ever exit from the tournament.

The squad may have won the Olympic Games the following summer under newly appointed manager Emma Hayes; however, reclaiming the podium of soccer’s most prestigious competition has remained top of mind.

The Stars and Stripes won’t mind the considerable increase in pay either. FIFA is reportedly planning to drastically increase the prize money for the 2027 Women’s World Cup, per Sky Sports News. Performance-based prizes will amount to $220 million for the 32 teams competing in Brazil, pending approval by the FIFA Council in December. It is a sum that doubles the $110 million doled out at the 2023 Australia and New Zealand tournament and is over seven times the $30 million divided up in 2019 France.

It marks a significant win for the women’s game, but it still does not match the prize money handed out at the 2026 men’s tournament across North America this summer, an ambition FIFA president Gianni Infantino had initially expressed back in 2023.

“Our ambition would, of course, to be able to have equality in payments for the 2026 men's and 2027 Women’s World Cup,” Infantino said before the tournament kicked off. “This is the objective we set to ourselves. FIFA is stepping up with actions not just with words ... but unfortunately this is not the case with everyone across the industry. Broadcasters and sponsors, dear friends, have to do more in this respect.”

The 2026 World Cup—which reportedly generated a record-breaking $15 billion in revenue due to unprecedented ticket resale prices, highly scrutinized commercial sponsorships and broadcast deals—had a record-smashing performance-based prize pot of $655 million to be distributed among the 48 competing nations. If the prize pools were equal for the men’s and women’s tournaments, then 2027 Brazil would see a performance-based prize pot of at least $436 million, which accounts for the 16 less teams competing.

Yet, even despite this giant pay gap, the USWNT players are actually in a unique position of gain.

Why the USWNT Wins No Matter What

rodman smiling — Trinity Rodman is expected to lead the USWNT to great success next summer. | Ronald Smits/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images

The U.S. Soccer Federation agreed to landmark collective bargaining agreements with the men’s and women’s national teams back in 2022, equalizing compensation for the very first time. The CBAs, which run through 2028, made USSF the first national governing body to promise both sexes matching money, and this includes the dollars from the 2026 men’s tournament and the 2027 women’s tournament.

The U.S. Soccer players’ unions agreed to pool World Cup prize money from the men’s and women’s editions of the tournament (2026 and 2027). 20% of that money goes to the the federation itself, while the 52 players—26 men and 26 women—split the other 80% equally.

The U.S. men’s national team earned $16 million in performance-based prize money from FIFA for advancing to the round of 16 this summer, which results in $12.8 million for the 52 players and $3.2 million for the federation. Therefore, each player—the 26 players rostered to the USMNT this summer and the 26 rostered to the USWNT next summer—walked away with around $246,153 in their pockets, excluding any added payments they may have received out of the $12.5 million FIFA initially doled out to each nation in guaranteed compensation.

The same practice will apply next summer, with the USWNT players sharing their prize money with the USMNT players. If the winners of 2027 Brazil earn around 7.6% of the total performance-based prize pot—like the champions Spain did this summer (earning $50 million of the $655 million pot)—then U.S. Soccer can expect to have a payday of $16.72 million for the USWNT winning, excluding any guaranteed compensation for simply competing in the tournament. That would mean around $257,230 for each USMNT and USWNT player.

2026 runners-up Argentina earned $33 million in performance-based prizes this summer, around 5% of the prize pot. Should the USWNT lose in the final next summer, each U.S. Soccer player will pocket around $169,230. If the USWNT crash out of the round of 16 again, each player will earn around $82,584.

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