Auckland City’s giant-killing draw with Argentina’s Boca Juniors is expected to land the club a NZ$1.65 million windfall in prizemoney from the FIFA Club World Cup.
Under the tournament prizemoney structure, every draw in a group game is worth US$1 million to each side, meaning the 1-1 draw at Geodis Park, Nashville, will trigger a payment to the New Zealand champions.
The Aucklanders snatched a draw with a headed goal from trainee schoolteacher Christian Gray, early in the second half of the final Group C fixture.
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Main photo: Christian Gray’s header is about to hit the Boca Juniors net.
The payment will be on top of the US$3.58 million participation fee due to Auckland City for qualifying to take part in the 32-club tournament in the United States.
When they revamped the tournament, global governing body FIFA confirmed US$1 billion (NZ$1.65 billion) prizemoney from the tournament would be split between clubs in two ways — a participation pool (US$525 million) and a performance pot (US$475 million).
The distribution of the participation pot is based on the rankings of clubs, in terms of their competition levels and their commercial standing, meaning Auckland City were always going to receive the least.
But with the money from the drawn match, the club should now receive about US$4.48 million, or NZ$7.6 million based on current exchange rates.
Prizemoney earned by Auckland City will be split with NZ Football and other clubs under an agreement for FIFA Club World Cup income to be shared.
Auckland City and NZ Football have been in a formal mediation process to finalise how the money would be shared, but no outcome has been announced.
Meanwhile, New Zealand clubs who developed players who played at the tournament will also benefit, as FIFA have confirmed US$250 million (NZ$416 million) will go into a ‘solidarity payment’ fund.
This is similar to the process following the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup when 30 New Zealand clubs shared development money of NZ$260,000 based on which Ferns they had helped develop.
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The winners of the four-yearly tournament stand to take away up to US$125 million.
READ MORE: How the US$1 billion prizemoney will be split by continent, tournament placings >>>>
Results
Games played on Wednesday June 24, 2025 (NZT)
Group C
Auckland City 1 (Christian Gray 52′)
Boca Juniors 1 (own goal 26′)
Benfica 1 (Andreas Schjelderup 13′)
Bayern Munich 0
Auckland City
Playing squad
1. Conor Tracey (Gk), 2. Mario Ilich (captain), 3. Adam Mitchell, 4. Christian Gray, 5. Nikko Boxall, 6. Jackson Manuel, 7. Myer Bevan, 8. Gerard Garriga, 9. Angus Kilkolly, 10. Dylan Manickum, 11. Ryan de Vries, 12. Regont Murati, 13. Nathan Lobo, 14. Jordan Vale, 15. Jeremy Foo, 16. Joe Lee, 17. Jerson Lagos, 18. Sebastian Ciganda (Gk), 19. Dylan Connolly, 20. Matt Ellis, 21. Adam Kanui Bell, 22. Tong Zhou, 23. Alfie Rogers, 24. Nathan Garrow, (Gk) 25. Michael den Heijer, 26. David Yoo, 27. Haris Zeb.
Staff
Head coach: Paul Posa
Assistant coach: Ivan Vicelich
Assistant coach: Adria Casals
Assistant coach: Daewook Kim
Goalkeeper coach: Jonas Hoffmann
Technical analyst: Malte Thesenvitz
Physio: Matt Payne
Physio: Zara Ellis
Physio: Natalia Kosinska
Team doctor: Craig Panther
Team manager: Keith Coton
This story was first published on June 25, 2025.