Women’s World Cup prize money: how much will winners and runners-up make for England Vs Spain match in Sydney?

The Women’s World Cup 2023 in Australia and New Zealand has seen fantastic performances and shock scorelines, as the final approached.

With England’s Lionesses about to take part in their first ever World Cup final, and the first final in English football (men or women’s) since 1966, the squad are guaranteed a major payday.

The prize pot for this year’s tournament is bigger than ever before, and is set to balloon again in 2027, as Fifa has promised that the next Women’s World Cup prize money will match that of the men’s tournament in 2026.

This year, the money on offer remains far below what the men took home from Qatar in 2022, but there are sure signs of progress.

What is the Women’s World Cup prize money?

The prize pot on offer for Spain and the Lionesses is three times greater than the money on offer at the Women’s World Cup in France in 2019. 

The total prize money for all competitors in the competition this year is £126 million in total, including an £86 million performance based prize pot that guarantees the worst performing teams are guaranteed to take home £24,000 per player. Teams knocked out in the group stage will each still win £1.2 million.

Players in teams that pass the group stages but are knocked out in the Round of 16 will earn £47,000 each, with the teams getting £1.4 million whilst quaterfinalists are set to make £71,000, and £1.7 million for each team.

Now we’re getting to the serious money - the fourth place team, which this year was Australia, following the Matildas' 2-0 loss to Sweden, won £129,000 per player, and the Australian team getting a £1.9 million payout. 

Third place team Sweden took home prize money of £141,000 for each player in the squad whilst the team got £2 million.

How much will the Women’s World Cup runners-up make?

The runners-up will be decided today when England take on Spain at Sydney's Stadium Australia. Each player in today’s losing team will earn £153,000. Additionally, the runner-up team will win £2.4 million.

How much will the Women’s World Cup winners earn?

As well as the glory of lifting the World Cup trophy, this year the victors will earn a whopping £210,000 each in prize money each, whilst the team will be awarded £3.4 million.

How does the Women’s World Cup prize money compare to the men’s?

Whilst the Women’s World Cup prize money is far higher than ever before, it still lags far behind the men’s earnings.

In fact, men’s teams that left the competition in the group stage in 2022 won around £7 million, more than double the women’s winning team will receive this year.

The total prize pool for the 2022 world cup was just under £350 million, with the winning team (Argentina) being awarded a hefty £35 million. The prize pot for the men’s game was more than two and half times greater than for the women’s.