clubs received $209 million for the participation of their players in the 2022 World Cup

The International Football Federation (FIFA) has reported on payments to clubs for the participation of their players in the 2022 World Cup, which was held in Qatar. In total, FIFA distributed $ 209 million among the teams that sent their players to the tournament. Manchester City got the most, for the second time in a row – about $ 4.6 million. For Manchester, this amount is insignificant, but it quite clearly indicates the quality assembled in the team composition.

International Football Federation Thursday published information on the distribution of compensation payments due to clubs whose players were included by their national teams in the 2022 World Cup. A total of $209 million was spent on compensation payments to 440 clubs from 51 national associations.

The scheme for calculating compensation payments is quite simple. Each day of the player’s stay in the national team, a kind of workday, costs $10,950.

Not only the days of the championship are taken into account, but also several days preceding it. In fact, the countdown begins from the moment the team arrives at the venue of the tournament. The player’s stay in the championship is considered completed on the day after the departure of his team. It does not matter whether the player went on the field or spent the entire championship on the bench. However, there is one detail. The money goes not only to the current football club, but also to those for which he played during the previous two seasons. This is precisely what explains, for example, the fact that the income to clubs for the players of the finalists of the championship – the national teams of Argentina and France – differ. Although they stayed at the tournament for the same time, and one would think that the payouts would be equal – $394,215, that is, for 36 days. In fact, for example, for Cillian Mbappe (he did not change the club in the previous two seasons), PSG received just $394,215, and for Lionel Messi – $262,810. Another $131,405 went to Barcelona, ​​from which the Argentine moved to PSG in 2021 year.

Most of all, which is quite predictable, received clubs representing countries that are members of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA).

Firstly, because Europe had the widest representation in the tournament (13 out of 32 teams), and secondly, it is in European clubs that the world’s leading players are gathered. In total, on compensation to clubs from associations belonging to UEFAalmost $ 159 million was allocated. In second place are teams from the Asian Football Confederation (A.F.C.) – $ 23.8 million, in third – teams from North America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF), on the fourth – clubs from South America (CONMEBOL) – $ 5.842 million, in fifth place – African teams (CAF) – $4.7 million Oceania (OFC) was limited to a symbolic $ 96 thousand. It should be noted that the striking strong lag behind Europe of clubs in South America and Africa only once again confirms that the best players from these regions practically do not play at home.

As for the distribution of payments by national associations, there are no special surprises here either. English football as the richest in the world, which means attracting the best players, and here it was in first place: the teams received $ 37.7 million. Other representatives of the “big football five” also entered the top 5: Spain — $24.2 million, Germany — $21 million, Italy – $18.68 million and France – $16.55 million. Share Russian clubs amounted to $ 1.229 million. More than a third of them went to Zenit – $ 476 thousand, Dynamo received $ 361 thousand, CSKA – $ 160 thousand. Deductions were also due to Rubin ($ 91.2 thousand), Lokomotiv ($ 80, 3 thousand) and Krasnodar ($60.2 thousand).

Most of the clubs for their players received “Manchester City” – $ 4.596 million. Oddly enough, in the top 5 this is the only English club.

Another thing is that England is already very widely represented – 46 teams at once (Spain has 33), including such clubs as Boreham Wood. He plays in the fifth most important division of England. Barcelona is second with $4.539 million, Bayern Munich is third with $4.331 million, Real Madrid is fourth with $3.836 million, and PSG is fifth with $3.835 million.

We also note that before the 2010 World Cup, clubs received nothing at all from FIFA. But the G14 group that existed in the early 2000s (which united the best clubs in Europe) entered into a tough confrontation with FIFA and UEFA and in 2008, after threatening to stop letting players into national teams and even establish its own tournament (the idea of ​​a Super League not controlled by the governing football structures appeared for more than a couple of years ago, and at the beginning of the century) achieved the appointment of payments. As a result, after the 2010 World Cup, clubs received compensation payments from FIFA for the first time. The total amount of deductions was only $55 million. It was the same after the 2014 World Cup. But in 2018, when the World Championship was held in Russia, FIFA, like this time, already distributed $209 million. And already at the next World Cup, which will be held in 2026 in the USA, Canada and Mexico, compensation payments will be increased $ 355 million (the same they will be at the world championship in 2030).

Alexander Petrov