Tipsheet

Guess What the U.S. Men's Soccer Team Has to Do With Its World Cup Payout

Amy Curtis
Amy Curtis  |  July 10, 2026 11:00 AM

The U.S. Men's National Soccer Team (USMNT) is out of the World Cup. They fell to Belgium 4-1 in Monday's match after a strong showing.

For their efforts, the USMNT will get at least a $12.8 million payout. There's just one problem with that. They have to share that money with the women's team.

Here's more:

The U.S. women’s national team won’t play a World Cup match until 2027, but it is still set to receive a major payday from this year’s big tournament.

The U.S. men’s national team earned $16 million from FIFA for reaching the round of 16 before being eliminated by Belgium in a 4-1 loss in Seattle. Under U.S. Soccer’s landmark equal pay collective bargaining agreements, that money will be shared with the women’s national team.

U.S. Soccer keeps 20 percent of the prize money. The remaining 80 percent is split evenly between the men’s and women’s player pools, meaning each team is set to receive $6.4 million from the USMNT’s run. Based on 26-player rosters, that comes out to roughly $246,153 per player.

The women’s share will not be paid immediately.

The USWNT has not yet qualified for the 2027 Women’s World Cup in Brazil, and the final roster will not be selected until closer to the tournament. Until then, the money owed to the women will sit in an interest-bearing account, with that interest also split between both player pools.

This is ridiculous.

The women did nothing to earn that money, and even when they do play, they don't draw nearly the same crowds as men's soccer. They should be paid accordingly. The women's payout, if any, from the 2027 Women's World Cup will be split with the men, but it's far less. In 2022, the USMNT received $13 million for reaching the round of 16; the women's team earned just $1.87 million for reaching the same stage in 2023.

That doesn't seem fair.

"So is there a women’s sport not made up of welfare Queens? Is it only the men who can survive on their own merits?" 

This is exactly correct.

This is socialism.

They did not earn it.

"The women didn't play a single minute of those matches, didn't draw the crowds, didn't sell the tickets, and didn't create the revenue - yet they still get a cut of the men's prize money while the reverse transfer remains a fraction," Chen wrote. "Yes the women are more successful (having won the Women's World Cup several times) but the prize is much smaller. Why? It reflects differences in global interest, sponsorship, viewership and actual performance. This is all under the guise of "parity" between 'equivalent work.' But in reality, it's more like subsidizing one program with the output of the other, just like the ex-spouse cashing checks from earnings she didn't generate."

We don't ever want to hear about how unfair America is to women, or how women don't have equal pay. They're taking money from the men's team when they didn't do a darned thing to earn it.