USA veteran Alex Morgan sees progress in FIFA's 'life-changing' World Cup prize plan

Each player at the World Cup, which kicks off on July 20 in Australia and New Zealand, will be guaranteed at least a $30,000 payday in a FIFA first to distribute prize money to individuals rather than federations.

All members of the winning team will take home $270,000, part of a $110 million total prize pool that is roughly 300% higher than in 2019.

That total figure still significantly trails what was offered at the men's tournament in Qatar last year, where a $440 million prize fund was available.

"FIFA has actually done - surprisingly coming out of my mouth - a very good job at increasing the prize money," Morgan told reporters on Tuesday at a pre-tournament media day.

"We still have a ways to go, but having them direct payments to the players is huge. I mean, it's a life-changing thing for some of these players entering the tournament.

"So coming away with each player making at least $30,000 is huge."

The US men's and women's teams agreed on landmark collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) with US Soccer last year that see the players receive equal pay and prize money, including at World Cups.

The two teams have identical performance-based bonuses for all games and competitions under the CBAs, which were reached months after the women's team and the federation resolved a years-long dispute over equal pay.

"With US Soccer, we have in our contract equal prize money between the men and the women, which is a shared pot. And that's the only federation in the world that does that," Morgan said.

"We're very happy that we fought for that and were able to attain that. Now it's up to FIFA and the other federations to do their part."