The 2018 edition of FIFA World Cup distributed $400 million as prize money, up from $358 million, in the previous World Cup. While France, the winner of this edition bagged the highest prize money – $38 million followed by Croatia, the other finalist, which received $28 million as the prize money.
What if each country divides the prize money among its citizens equally?
Icelanders would have earned the most, despite being eliminated at the group stage itself. A thinly populated country – Iceland has a population of around 3.34 lakh, and the prize money of $8 million equally distributed among all citizens should have made them richer by $24.
Here’s how the prize money got distributed in the FIFA World Cup 2018:
• 16 teams eliminated after the Group Stage: $8 million each• Eight teams eliminated after the Round 16: $12 million each• Four teams eliminated in the Quarter Finals: $16 million each• The third runner-up: $22 million• The second runner-up: $24 million• The runner-up: $28 million
• The winner: $38 million
The runner-up country Croatia follows Iceland. Equal Croatian would have got around $7 in their pockets by dividing the prize money equally among themselves.
Similarly, Uruguayans would have got around $5 each. Uruguay was eliminated in the quarterfinals and bagged prize money of $16 million.
On the other hand, France despite winning the highest prize money, it translates into only half a dollar per French citizen. Likewise, England despite ending the World Cup at # 4 and earning $22 million as prize money, it comes out to be only $0.4 per citizen.