How do you increase interest in a competition that nobody really wants to play in? Easy: you pump up the prize money pot. Because cash is, quite literally, the only currency that counts in modern football. FIFA have taken the point on board, and have announced an eye-watering increase to the prize fund for the inaugural edition of their revamped Club World Cup.
The governing body has confirmed that the total bounty paid out at the 2025 Club World Cup will be a cool €1 billion, which equates to around £840 million. The winner of the tournament will trouser £97 million; just shy of the £110 million that the Champions League, erm, champion will receive in 2025. But the Club World Cup will last less than a month, and the team that lifts the trophy will only need to play seven games to get their hands on the loot.
In an era of Profit & Sustainability Rules (PSR), being able to win £97 million from what is a glorified summer exhibition tournament – offsetting that against transfer and wage spending in the future – is an attractive proposition. Maybe the folks at FIFA aren’t as daft as they look. Even so, the Club World Cup ISN’T the most lucrative tournament in world football, even with the sizable prize pool. That accolade goes to the competition with the greatest commercial pull around the globe. So, let’s take a deep dive into the five richest competitions in football today.
#5 – 
Club World Cup (£840 million)
Smashing into the top five is, well, the Club World Cup, in which the prize money being played for exceeds the purse available in two of Europe’s ‘big five’ leagues: the Spanish La Liga and France’s Ligue 1. FIFA’s much-maligned president, Gianni Infantino, said of the prize money being offered: “The distribution model of the FIFA Club World Cup reflects the pinnacle of club football and represents the biggest-ever prize money for a football tournament comprising a seven-match group stage and playoff format with a potential payout of $125 million foreseen for the winners.”
Infantino’s ‘pinnacle’ comment can be taken with a pinch of salt – he caveats it by saying that this is the most prestigious seven-game tournament in world football, and it’s something of a dig at UEFA you fancy; they increased the prize money, and the schedule, of the Champions League ahead of the 2024/25 season.
It’s perhaps true that, pro rata, the Club World Cup is the richest tournament in world football. Teams only have to play seven games to get their hands on huge riches; as opposed to the heavy workload that comes with a 38-game domestic campaign. If they were being honest, most players and coaches would want nothing to do with the Club World Cup; they’d rather have a summer off between the rigours of the international World Cup and European Championship. But with such a financial carrot being dangled by FIFA, it might just help to concentrate the minds of those involved.
#4 – German Bundesliga (£920 million)
Of Europe’s five most prestigious domestic club competitions, the German Bundesliga is the third most lucrative. In 2024/25, the 18 clubs battled it out for a total prize fund of £920 million. Of that, 30% is equally distributed between the teams – that equates to around £420 million.
The remaining 70% is paid out pro rata based upon performance: so, the champion will net around £65 million, while the team that finishes bottom of the Bundesliga table earns around £27 million.
#3 – Italian Serie A (£1.3 billion)
The Italian Serie A has long been second to the English Premier League in terms of Europe’s most lucrative domestic club competitions. As of the 2024/25 season, the total prize pot had reached £1.3 billion, which exceeds nearly all of the continent’s other major leagues by some considerable margin.
As is the case with the German Bundesliga, the prize money kitty is split into different tranches. First up is the equally distributed share, which amounts to approximately 50% of the total fund – around £630 million. A further 20% is paid out based upon popularity and fanbase. In essence, the bigger your crowds, the bigger your slice of the fund – this equates to about £250 million, in total.
The remaining 30% of the pot is paid out based on performance, with 15% coming from that season’s league table and the remaining 15% from historic results. It looks, on paper, to be a meritocracy in the Italian Serie A, but in truth the biggest and richest clubs continue to bank the largest slice of the prize money available.
#2 – Champions League (£2.1 billion)
The Champions League was expanded to 36 teams for the 2024/25 campaign, which guaranteed that each side played at least two games more than they did in previous editions. By that logic, they should get paid more money – and the prize pot for the Champions League was increased from £1.7 billion to £2.1 billion for that 2024/25 iteration.
That was sliced up according to performance. So, any clubs that were knocked out in the league phase earned only bonuses for their results – wins paid £1.8 million each and draws £600,000. Those that made it through the league phase were then rewarded with prize money relative to their point of exit from the competition. Those that lost in the play-offs made £850,000, with a big jump for those that exited in the round of 16 (£9.4 million)… as Liverpool did.
A bumper payday was guaranteed thereafter:
- Quarter final exit – £10.7 million
- Semi final exit – £12.8 million
- Runner up – £15.8 million
- Winner – £21.5 million
#1 – English Premier League (£2.8 billion)
But the prize for the richest club competition in world football goes to the English Premier League. The way in which the pot is divvied up is somewhat complicated, with different tranches for equally distributed shares, facility fees and merit payments based on performance.
There’s also an ‘international’ arm of the prize money kitty, with further payments made for equally distributed shares, merit payments (for performances in continental competitions) and an equally weighted commercial payout, based upon how the Premier League’s business side performs.
All told, there’s £2.8 billion in the fund each season. In 2023/24, for instance, Manchester City won the Premier League title – when each of the six payment types detailed above were tallied up, their total payout that campaign was a whopping £175.9 million. At the other end of the scale, Sheffield United received the smallest fraction of the fund – but a still handsome £109.7 million made its way into their coffers.
