FIFA details Club World Cup prize money with $125M target for the winner in $1BN fund

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FIFA details Club World Cup prize money with $125M target for the winner in $1BN fund

2025-03-26 23:00 Last Updated At：23:11

GENEVA (AP) — The winner of FIFA’s first 32-team Club World Cup in the United States could earn $125 million as details of a $1 billion prize money fund were finally published Wednesday.

FIFA said it allocated $525 million in guaranteed fees for teams taking part in the June 14-July 13 tournament, ranging from $38.19 million to the top-ranked European team to $3.58 million for the Oceania representative Auckland City.

A further $475 million is earned by results in the 63 games, with $2 million paid for winning group stage games, $7.5 million for playing in the round of 16 and $40 million to the team that wins the final at MetLife Stadium near New York.

The top-ranked European team — likely Real Madrid — that won all its group-stage games and advanced through the knockout rounds to win the title would get to $125 million.

The golden trophy has been sitting in the Oval Office at the White House this month after FIFA President Gianni Infantino delivered it to President Donald Trump, who was invited to present it to the winning captain.

The prize fund was delayed until a global broadcast deal was belatedly agreed in December with streaming service DAZN, which then got a major investment from a state-backed sports agency in Saudi Arabia. Fans can watched games for free on DAZN's website.

Saudi Arabia also was confirmed in December by FIFA as host of the men’s 2034 World Cup.

Each of the 12 European teams in the Club World Cup lineup will be paid at least $12.81 million as an entry fee for the first expanded edition of the four-yearly tournament. Payments will be decided by “a ranking based on sporting and commercial criteria,” FIFA said without providing details.

Manchester City, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea also qualified by either winning a Champions League title from 2021 to 2024, or having consistent results in the competition over those four seasons.

Countries were capped at two entries, unless they had three Champions League winners. Salzburg of Austria qualified as the final European team, despite never advancing beyond the round of 16, because higher-ranked clubs like Liverpool and Barcelona were blocked by the country cap.

The six South American teams each will get a $15.21 million entry fee.

Teams from Africa, Asia and the CONCACAF region of North America — including Lionel Messi's Inter Miami, despite not winning the MLS Cup title last season — each will get $9.55 million for playing. Any team from these regions that wins the title will earn less than $100 million.

Leon of Mexico is currently contesting its removal from the competition by FIFA because it is in shared ownership with Pachuca which also qualified.

FIFA aims to share $250 million among clubs worldwide who did not qualify for the tournament. It is unclear how many clubs will be paid, or how much they will get.

The maximum prize of $125 million ranks below the English Premier League and UEFA's Champions League in soccer's prize money table.

Man City got 176 million pounds ($227 million) in prize money from the Premier League for winning the title last season.

In the 2022-23 Champions League prize list, the most recent published by UEFA, title-winning Man City got almost 135 million euros ($146 million). The competition's total prize fund has now risen by almost 25% for each season through 2027.

UEFA will pay out close to 2.5 billion euros ($2.7 billion) among the 36 teams in the new expanded format that guaranteed eights games played instead of six.

The $1 billion Club World Cup prize pot is, however, more than double the $440 million FIFA shared among the 32 soccer federations whose teams played at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Sponsors who signed with FIFA for the club event in the two highest commercial tiers also have deals for the men's 2026 World Cup in the U.S. which will be co-hosted by Canada and Mexico.

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

'Eid of sadness': Palestinians in Gaza mark Muslim holiday with dwindling food and no end to war

2025-03-30 23:55 Last Updated At：03-31 00:00

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Palestinians in the Gaza Strip had little to celebrate Sunday as they marked the normally festive Eid al-Fitr with rapidly dwindling food supplies and renewed fighting in the Israel-Hamas war. Israeli strikes killed at least 19 people, mostly women and children, health officials said.

Many prayed outside demolished mosques on the holiday marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. It's supposed to be a joyous occasion when families feast and purchase new clothes for children, but most of Gaza's 2 million people are just trying to survive.

“It’s the Eid of sadness,” Adel al-Shaer said after attending prayers amid rubble in the central town of Deir al-Balah. “We lost our loved ones, our children, our lives and our futures.”

Twenty members of his extended family have been killed by Israeli strikes, including four young nephews a few days ago, he said and began to cry.

Israel ended the ceasefire with Hamas and resumed the 17-month war earlier this month with a surprise bombardment that killed hundreds, after the militant group refused to accept changes to the truce reached in January. Israel has not allowed food, fuel or humanitarian aid to enter Gaza for a month.

“There is killing, displacement, hunger and a siege,” said Saed al-Kourd, a worshipper. “We go out to perform God’s rituals in order to make the children happy, but as for the joy of Eid? There is no Eid.”

Arab mediators are trying to get the truce back on track. Hamas said Saturday it had accepted a new proposal from Egypt and Qatar. Israel said it made a counter-proposal in coordination with the United States, which has also been mediating. The details were not immediately known.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would continue military operations while negotiating. He rejected claims that Israel does not want to end the war, while laying out conditions that go far beyond the signed ceasefire agreement and have been rejected by Hamas.

“Hamas will disarm. Its leaders will be allowed out. We will look out for the general security in the Gaza Strip and allow for the realization of (President Donald) Trump’s plan,” Netanyahu told a Cabinet meeting.

Trump has proposed that Gaza's population be resettled in other countries so the U.S. can redevelop Gaza for others. Palestinians say they do not want to leave their homeland. Human rights experts say the plan would likely violate international law.

Israeli strikes on Sunday morning killed at least 16 people, including nine children and three women, according to Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis.

Two girls appeared to be wearing new clothes purchased for the holiday, according to an Associated Press cameraman, including spotless sneakers.

On Sunday evening, a strike hit a tent in Deir al-Balah and killed at least two people, according to an AP journalist at the hospital.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said 14 bodies were recovered in the southern city of Rafah, including eight of its emergency medical technicians and five members of Gaza’s Civil Defense, all who had been missing for a week. Israel’s military has said it fired on advancing “suspicious vehicles” and later discovered some were ambulances.

The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages. Hamas is still holding 59 captives — 24 believed to be alive.

Israel's offensive has killed over 50,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its tally. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence, and blames civilian deaths on Hamas because it operates in densely populated areas.

Netanyahu’s security Cabinet approved the construction of a road for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. Critics say it will open the door for Israel to annex a key area just outside Jerusalem, further undermining the feasibility of a future Palestinian state.

Netanyahu’s office said the project is meant to streamline travel for Palestinians in communities near the large Jewish settlement of Maaleh Adumim.

Peace Now, an Israeli anti-settlement watchdog group, said the road will divert Palestinian traffic outside of Maaleh Adumim and the surrounding area known as E1, a tract of open land deemed essential for the territorial contiguity of a future state.

That will make it easier for Israel to annex E1, according to Hagit Ofran, a settlement expert with the group, because Israel can claim there is no disruption to Palestinian movement. Critics say Israeli settlements and other land grabs make a contiguous future state increasingly impossible.

Several roads in the West Bank are meant for use by either Israelis or Palestinians, which international rights groups say is part of an apartheid system, allegations Israel rejects.

Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want all three for their future state. A two-state solution is widely seen as the only way to resolve the decades-old conflict.

Jahjouh reported from Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, and Goldenberg from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writer Fatma Khaled in Cairo contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war