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2026 World Cup: FIFA Increases Money For Teams Amongst Other Amendments:
The FIFA Council met ahead of the 76th FIFA Congress in Vancouver, Canada, a Host City for the FIFA World Cup 2026™, 44 days before the kick-off of the tournament.
Given the commercial success of FIFA’s flagship men’s tournament, the FIFA Council agreed to increase the resources to be distributed to all 48 participating teams by a further 15%, totalling USD 871 million. The increased pot will be broken down as follows:
Preparation money: increase from USD 1.5 million to USD 2.5 million
Qualification money: increase from USD 9 million to USD 10 million
Additional team contributions: subsidies for team delegation costs and increased team ticketing allocations totalling over USD 16 million
The balance of revenues will continue to be redistributed back into global football for the benefit of and through all of FIFA’s 211 Member Associations.
“FIFA is proud to be in its most solid financial position ever, enabling us to help all our Member Associations in an unprecedented way. This is one more example of how FIFA’s resources are reinvested back into the game,” stated President Infantino.
Afghan Women’s Refugee Team to compete in FIFA competitions
Building on the creation of the Afghan Women’s Refugee Team and their subsequent debut during the FIFA Unites – Women’s Series 2025, the FIFA Council agreed to amend the FIFA Governance Regulations to allow for the participation of the team in official FIFA competitions.
“We are proud of the beautiful journey initiated by Afghan Women United, and with this initiative we aim to enable them, as well as other FIFA Member Associations that may not be able to register a national or representative team for a FIFA competition, to make the next step, in coordination with the relevant confederation,” commented President Infantino.
Adjustments to yellow-card reset at FIFA World Cup 2026
Reflective of the expanded format with an extra knockout round, the FIFA Council confirmed an amendment to the Regulations for the FIFA World Cup 2026 whereby single yellow cards in the final competition will be cancelled after the group stage and then again after the quarter-finals.
Application of law changes in FIFA World Cup 2026 approved
The FIFA Council approved the application in the FIFA World Cup 2026 of the two Law changes related to players leaving the field of play in direct protest at a referee’s decision, and players covering their mouths when speaking to opponents in situations of confrontation, as set out by The IFAB Special Meeting.
Credit: Adewale Ajayi
