FIFA announce huge changes to 2026 World Cup after bowing down to concerned nations

FIFA bosses bowed down to demands from countries competing in the World Cup and has substantially raised the amount of cash to be given to each nation. Earlier this week the Mirror exclusively revealed that many countries feared LOSING money at the tournament describing it as a potential financial disaster. Now FIFA has made a dramatic u-turn and announced an extra £650million will be given to the 48 teams taking part this summer. Every single side will get another £800,000 each to help with high costs of hotels, training bases and travel. President Gianni Infantino said: “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.” A FIFA spokesman said: “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 (£650m). “The increased pot will be broken down as follows: Preparation money: increase from USD 1.5 million (£1.1m) to USD 2.5 million (£1.85m). Qualification money: increase from USD 9 million (£6.6m) to USD 10 million (£7.4m) “Additional team contributions: subsidies for team delegation costs and increased team ticketing allocations totalling over USD 16 million (£11.8m) “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. On Monday the Mirror revealed the serious concerns of countries, One FIFA source, who asked not to be identified, told the Mirror: “There is a real concern that several countries will actually lose money. This is the most lucrative sporting event in the world . “Smaller countries should be making decent money from it. It’s scandalous that they are even having to consider losing money on what will be the biggest sporting event they will have ever taken part in. “There are movements to raise the issue in Vancouver and hope that something sensible can be worked out.” Four nations will be making their world cup debuts: Cape Verde, Curacao, Uzbekistan and Jordan. The World Cup in the US, Canada and Mexico starts on June 10th and ends with the final in New York City on Sunday 19th July. England will be based near Kansas City and fly in and out for their group games in Dallas, Boston and New York. Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.