Nigeria’s failure to qualify for the 2026 World Cup, billed to start in the United States, Canada and Mexico in June, has cost the country a share of the jumbo $871 million, which the world football governing body, FIFA, has announced that it would give to the 48 teams participating in this year’s championship.

The FIFA Council announced the largesse to the teams at its 76th Congress in Vancouver, Canada, yesterday, 44 days before the kick-off of the tournament. Vancouver is one of the host Cities for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Nigeria failed to qualify for the World Cup from an African group comprising Lesotho, Rwanda, South Africa, Zimbabwe and the Benin Republic.

The Super Eagles also lost to DR Congo in the African playoff, a window created for the four best second-placed teams in the groups to vie for passage to the World Cup.

Africa’s 10 teams at the championship are Egypt, Morocco, Cape Verde, Ghana, South Africa, Cote d’Ivoire, DR Congo, Tunisia, Algeria and Senegal.

Nigeria also failed to qualify for the last edition of the World Cup held in Qatar in 2022.

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 per cent, totalling $871 million.

The increased pot breakdown includes preparation money, which has increased from $1.5 million to $2.5 million and qualification money, which has increased from $9 million to $10 million.

Additional contributions to teams include subsidies for delegation costs and increased team ticketing allocations totalling over $16 million.

According to FIFA, 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.

Explaining the additional funds to the teams, FIFA 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.”