The U.S. Men’s National Team (USMNT) will be sharing the 2026 World Cup payout with the women’s team as part of the equal pay collective bargaining agreement.
The USMNT is set to receive a $16 million payout from FIFA for going all the way into the Round of 16 before being knocked out by Belgium, but they will not keep all the cash, per the New York Post.
U.S. Soccer keeps 20 percent of the prize money. The remaining 80 percent is split evenly between the men’s and women’s player pools, meaning each team is set to receive $6.4 million from the USMNT’s run. Based on 26-player rosters, that comes out to roughly $246,153 per player.
The arrangement exists because of the equal-pay fight led by U.S. women. The USWNT has won four World Cups, while the men have not advanced past the round of 16 since 2002. In 2019, members of the women’s team sued U.S. Soccer, accusing the federation of gender discrimination. A settlement followed in 2022, along with new CBAs for both teams.
The Women’s World Cup will be held in Brazil in 2027, with the final USWNT roster likely to be announced in the fall of this year or even closer to the tournament.
Controversy about pay disparities between both teams arose in 2022 when the men received $13 million for reaching the Round of 16 while the USWNT received just $1.87 million for reaching the same stage in the 2023 Women’s World Cup.
“The first and most obvious point of clarification is that the U.S. women must first qualify for the 2027 World Cup. While that is widely assumed as a given for the four-time World Cup champions, they still need to defeat El Salvador on Nov. 27 in a win-and-in Concacaf quarterfinal,” per ESPN.
“The collective bargaining agreements require payment of the men’s players’ prizes by the federation within 31 days of U.S. Soccer’s receipt of the money from FIFA,” it added. “However, since the U.S. women still need to qualify for the World Cup, and the 26 players on that roster would not be confirmed until next spring, the $6.4 million due to women’s players is to be placed in an interest-bearing account, according to the CBAs.”