The CONCACAF Gold Cup pits together the best national soccer teams in North America, Central America, the Caribbean and often guest countries from outside the region every two years.
This will be the 17th edition of the biennial tournament that has been played since 1963 but was reformatted in 1991 to the competition it is today. Mexico have lifted the most CONCACAF Gold Cups with eight, followed by the United States with seven and Canada with just one.
Apart from earning the continental bragging rights, the winning nation also get a shot at decent monetary benefits, although it can be argued that the winnings of the Gold Cup are a far cry from satisfactory when compared to other federations' top-tier competition, as GOAL takes as look...
How is the prize pot distributed in the CONCACAF Gold Cup?
It’s confirmed that each team will earn guaranteed purse money for qualification. There is no prize money adjusted for 4th place, group match win or draw, semi-finalists and quarter-finalists. Only runner-ups and winners of the tournament are awarded CONCACAF Gold Cup 2023 money.
Only the nation that emerges victorious in the Gold Cup final, and the losing finalist will take home the rest of the prize pot.
How much does the Gold Cup champion earn?
CONCACAF have not officially confirmed the overall prize fund for the 2023 Gold Cup as of yet, but we can expect the breakdown to be similar to the 2021 edition.
You can see the full breakdown of the CONCACAF Cup 2021 prize money in the table below.
| Round | Prize money | No. of teams |
|---|---|---|
| Winners | $1,000,000 | 1 |
| Runner-up | $500,000 | 1 |
| Final tournament | $200,000 | 16 |
USA are the current Concacaf Gold Cup champions after overcoming Mexico in the final back in 2021. The dramatic final in Las Vegas was goalless after 90 minutes and required extra time to decide the winner of the prestigious trophy.
That was the United States' seventh Gold Cup silverware. The CONCACAF Gold Cup 2021 winners received a rather more modest sum of $1 million as the prize money, almost half of what is rumoured to be on offer for lifting the upcoming latest edition of the Gold Cup later this summer.
Furthermore, the runners-up Mexico also received a total of $500,000. Rest all the 16 teams got $200,000 for participating in the competition, which means only $3.2 million prize money was distributed as the participation fees in the tournament last time out.
How does the prize money compare in the CONCACAF Gold Cup compare to other continental championships?
In comparison with other regional competitions, the money prize for the Gold Cup 2021 is not the highest. For example, Argentina, the Copa America 2021 champions, netted $10 million, while every participant received $4 million.
In Europe, Italy took home over $11.5 million for winning Euro 2020, with the runners-up consoled with a cool $7.8 million. Even the losing semi-finalists are handsomely rewarded for taking part, with the country coming out on top in the third-place playoff earning $5.5 million.