Spain beat Argentina to lift the World Cup in New York on Sunday, but it was more than just a historic sporting triumph.

It will also deliver a major financial windfall for the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), the players – and Spain’s tax authorities.

According to FIFA’s official prize structure, the victory earns Spain around $62 million (€55 million).

That figure includes $50 million for winning the tournament, around $10 million for participation and a further $2.5 million for preparation costs.

Most of that money will go directly to the RFEF, which will decide how the funds are distributed.

Unlike some national teams, where players receive a percentage of the prize money, Spain’s squad has agreed on a fixed bonus.

Each of the 26 players selected by Luis de la Fuente will receive €754,701.92.

That will see almost €19.6 million paid out to the squad, leaving the RFEF with roughly €35 million.

As a non-profit organisation, the federation says any surplus is reinvested into Spanish football, including improving facilities, funding academies, expanding high-performance centres and supporting grassroots clubs and young players.

But another big winner is Spain’s taxman.

While the federation pays relatively little tax, the players’ bonuses are treated as employment income and must be declared to Spain’s tax agency.

Of the 26-man squad, 17 players currently play for La Liga clubs, meaning their World Cup bonuses will generally be taxable in Spain.

The remaining nine – including stars such as Rodri, Pedro Porro and Mikel Merino – play abroad, mainly in England, meaning Spain will not receive income tax from their bonuses.

According to calculations by Spain’s union of Treasury technicians (Gestha), the bonuses paid to the 17 La Liga-based players would total around €12.8 million.

Because top-flight footballers already earn enough to fall into Spain’s highest income tax brackets, those bonuses would likely be taxed at the top marginal rates, which range from 45% in Madrid to as much as 54% in the Valencian Community, depending on where each player is tax resident.

Gestha estimates that Spain’s tax authorities would collect around €6 million from the players’ bonuses alone if Spain win the tournament.

Of that, around €4.4 million would go to Spain’s national tax agency, with the remainder split between the regional tax authorities, including approximately €350,000 for Navarra and around €300,000 each for Gipuzkoa and Bizkaia.

Those figures do not include any tax paid by head coach Luis de la Fuente or the rest of Spain’s coaching staff.

So while a World Cup victory would be celebrated by millions of football fans across the country, it would also provide an unexpected boost to Spain’s public finances.