Spain’s 1–0 victory over Argentina in Sunday’s World Cup final will bring a record cheque from FIFA: $50 million (€43.7 million). And the experience of previous champions suggests the economy will get a short-lived but noticeable boost.
Ferran Torres’ goal in the 106th minute gave Spain its second World Cup title, 16 years after the triumph in South Africa, and immediately brought back a familiar question: does winning make a country richer?
Prize money and taxes
The direct reward is simple. FIFA pays the winning federation a record $50 million (€43.7 million). For comparison, Argentina received $42 million (€36.7 million) in 2022. The total prize fund of the expanded 48-team tournament is $655 million (€572 million).
The Spanish federation (RFEF) decides for itself how much of the sum goes to the players, the coaching staff and the support team. The rest covers its own costs and development programmes. Every payment is taxed: the authorities expect to collect around €6 million from the 17 squad players who live in Spain. Most of it, roughly €4.4 million, will go to the state tax agency, with smaller shares going to the treasuries of Navarre and the Basque Country.
What economists say
The macroeconomics are more complicated. According to a study by economist Marco Mello of the University of Aberdeen (2024, Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics), winning the World Cup raises the champion country’s annual GDP growth rate by at least 0.48% for two quarters after the final, after which the effect fades. Admittedly, the sample of champions in such a study is inevitably small.
Applied to Spain’s €1.69 trillion economy, that estimate would mean a gain of about €4 billion, calculates Pedro Santa Cruz, director of Freedom24 Iberia. He also points out that the FIFA prize itself is roughly what the country produces in a quarter of an hour.
Celebrations in bars are not new money
According to data from the payment platform Square, cited by Santa Cruz, the number of transactions in bars and restaurants rose by 36% during Spain’s group-stage matches, and by 66% in Seville. However, much of that spending simply shifted from other categories rather than being an inflow of new money. The victory celebrations are likely to have a similar effect, even if more than a million people take to the streets of Madrid to welcome the champions.
The lesson of 2010
Spain’s own experience is the best warning against inflated expectations. The 2010 triumph came at a time when unemployment was hovering around 20% and the economy was heading towards a large-scale bank bailout. The trophy itself changed neither.
