The economic cost of losing the World Cup

The final game of the 2026 FIFA Men's World Cup will be played this Sunday in New Jersey. It'll be Spain taking on Argentina to earn the title of champions.

But for the other 46 teams that failed to advance to the final, there's an economic cost that comes with crashing out of the tournament. It’s more than just angry fans and media criticism.

Catherine Kim wrote about this for Politico. She's an assistant editor there and spoke with “Marketplace Morning Report” host Kimberly Adams for more on this. The following is an edited transcript of their interview.

Kimberly Adams: You start your piece with a taste of what happens when a team underperforms in the World Cup. Can you share more about what we saw from different teams?

Catherine Kim: Yeah, I think the one that I had highlighted and is definitely the most controversial is South Korea's crash out. They didn't even make it to the knockout rounds. It was one of their poorest performances ever, and that actually led to the president calling for a special audit on the Korea Football Association — KFA — as well as the hiring of the coach. There's already been a lot of controversy over whether he was hired on improper grounds. What started with that president's request for an audit has now kind of snowballed into a series of national assembly hearings. The Seoul Metropolitan Police is conducting a criminal investigation. The coach has resigned; the Korea Football Association's president is leaving, as well. And so there have been all these political consequences to their loss.

Adams: I think a lot of people can relate to being upset that your team has lost, but to outsiders, this may seem like a bit of overkill for there to be all of these investigations and for the government to be involved in this. Why is there such an intense reaction?

Kim: What is on the line here is that KFA — about 30% of its funds come from public funds. It's the reason why the president is so interested in seeing whether or not it has gone through proper procedure. Transparency is very important to the people of Korea. It's been a pillar to this specific president's presidency. And that had become a huge question mark, the transparency behind KFA and hiring its coach.

Adams: What do we know about how some of the other teams that have had to go home empty-handed are being received, and any financial consequences for them?

Kim: Uruguay is the first that comes to mind. There has been federation turmoil and public fallout. Famously, the federation canceled the team's charter flight home. So it forced the players to come back home on commercial flights, as a means of embarrassment and punishment. And Croatia, their manager left, and they've hired someone new to rebuild the team. And Saudi Arabia, the football federation's president has resigned, and they have also acknowledged the need for sweeping changes.

Adams: You know, we should also note that the U.S. men's national team did lose in the round of 16 against Belgium. But there's still a pretty significant payday that comes out of that, anyway, right?

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