France and Croatia will play for the World Cup and an extra $10 million

Pavel Golovkin/AP

It is becoming increasingly more lucrative to win the world's biggest soccer tournament as FIFA will pay this year's winning team $38 million, $10 million more than the runner-up in the match between France and Croatia.

As recently as 2006, winning the World Cup was only worth $2 million more than the runner-up ($20 million vs. $18 million). Since then, the prize for the winner has nearly doubled and the check for the second-place country has risen slightly more than 50%.

Meanwhile, there is something on the line in the third-place match between England and Belgium as the winner will take home an extra $2 million.

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