Manchester City received more money from FIFA for their players appearing at the Qatar World Cup than any other club in the world.
A whopping 16 City players represented their national teams at the 2022 World Cup last winter, with Julian Alvarez the only one to get his hands on the famous trophy.
On Thursday FIFA published its Club Benefits Programme Report, outlining the payments made to clubs who released players to play at the World Cup.
City top the pile
City top the list after the Premier League champions received £3.54m from the world football governing body’s total outlay of £160.91m.
Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain are next in the standings.
City’s cross-town rivals Manchester United were the next English team on the list with £2.85m, while Chelsea receive the third-highest payment for a Premier League club with £2.79m.
Premier League sides received more than those in any other country – £29m – while in total European teams earned £158.9m, 76% of the overall sum FIFA handed out.
The payments were made according to the number of days each player was involved in the tournament, from the day they reported for duty to the day of their nation’s final match.
FIFA says that the overall sum of payments worked out at £9,388 per day per player.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino confirmed that club payments will increase for the 2026 and 2030 World Cups.
“Following the renewal of the memorandum of understanding with the European Clubs’ Association, the amount redistributed to clubs will further increase from $209m (£160.91m) for the 2018 and 2022 editions to $355m (£304.35m) for the 2026 and 2030 tournaments, recognising yet again the importance of the role played by clubs,” he said.
MCN view: World Cup participation has its benefits
Some City fans were worried that City’s players would return from the tournament exhausted, but that didn’t stop Pep Guardiola’s side from winning the treble.
Away from the pitch, the involvement of so many City players turned out to be a good thing.
While £3.54m is a drop in the ocean in terms of elite-level football finances, it still contributes to City’s income and the money that can be reinvested into the club.
City are already the most commercially successful club in the world right now, and now they have bettered their rivals in another metric.
