England’s players and coaching staff will receive around half of the FA’s £38m Fifa prize money in bonuses if they win the World Cup.
- The FA agreed bonuses of about £15m to the squad, £3m to Tuchel, and £1m for his backroom team if victorious.
- Players' potential bonus pool is more than double what they'd have received had they won in Qatar four years earlier.
- The England Lionesses dispute over bonuses before the 2023 Women's World Cup prompted the FA to raise men's potential bonuses.
- The FA is already guaranteed about $19m for reaching the quarter-finals, roughly half to be passed to players and staff regardless.
The Guardian has learned that as part of a bonus scheme agreed with the players’ leadership group before the tournament, the FA will pay bonuses of around £15m to the squad, £3m to Tuchel and approximately £1m to his backroom team should Harry Kane lift the trophy in New York next weekend.
The players’ potential bonus pool is more than double what they would have received had they won the World Cup in Qatar four years ago.
Sources with knowledge of the negotiations have told the Guardian that Tuchel’s squad are partly indebted to their female counterparts for the FA’s largesse. The England Lionesses went public with their dispute with the FA ahead of the 2023 Women’s World Cup after their failure to agree to a bonus scheme, with the governing body initially reluctant to offer further incentives on top of the individual prize money provided by Fifa, which reached £200,000 for the winners.
That dispute was resolved after the tournament, which saw England beaten in the final by Spain. With the Lionesses receiving large bonuses the FA has responded by increasing the money potentially on offer to the men, who have also benefited from Fifa massively increasing the prize money paid to national associations.
There has been an increase by 50% from the 2022 tournament to $655m (£488m), although the pot has to be distributed among 48 rather than 32 associations, with the winners receiving $50m, up from $32m four years ago.
The FA is already guaranteed around $19m as a result of England reaching the quarter-finals, around half of which will be passed on to the players and staff irrespective of the outcome of Saturday’s last-eight tie against Norway.
The exact amount paid to each player will depend on their time spent on the pitch, although if shared equally it would equate to £577,000 per man.
In addition the players receive appearance fees of £2,000 for each match, although as part of a historic agreement those payments are donated to charity. As a result, over £5m has been raised for good causes through the England Footballers Foundation since 2027.
The FA has been contacted for comment.
