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ZURICH: FIFA will pay out $209 million to clubs whose players competed at last year’s World Cup finals in Qatar, world football’s governing body said on Thursday.
The payment will be made to 440 clubs from 51 different countries whose players were at the tournament last November and December, won by Argentina.
FIFA will pay a daily amount of $10,950 for each of 837 footballers at the World Cup, regardless of how many minutes they played during the tournament.
The total per player is divided and distributed to the club, or clubs, with which the player was registered in the two years leading up to the finals in Qatar.
This is an increase from the $8,530 that FIFA paid per player at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
For Qatar, a total of 46 English clubs will be the largest recipients with a combined total of $37,713,297, followed by clubs from Spain, Germany, Italy and France.
Manchester City will be paid the most for a single club with a sum of $4,596,445 followed by Barcelona ($4,538,955) and Bayern Munich ($4,331,809).
Under the agreement signed earlier this year by FIFA and the European Club Association, $355 million will be distributed to clubs under the programme for the 2026 and 2030 editions of the World Cup.
FREE TICKETS FOR WOMEN’S WORLD CUP
FIFA also announced that it is giving away 20,000 free tickets for Women’s World Cup games in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington and Dunedin amid concerns about the slow pace of sales in New Zealand.
Co-hosts Australia have snapped up the lion’s share of the 1 million tickets sold so far, with their ‘Matildas’ team seen as a genuine title threat.
FIFA’s chief women’s football officer Sarai Bareman said it was more difficult to attract fans to football stadiums in New Zealand due to the sport’s lower profile in the country while the ‘Football Ferns’ have yet to win a match in five previous appearances at the World Cup.
The official partner of this year’s showpiece event, Xero, is offering 5,000 complimentary tickets to games in New Zealand’s four host cities.
Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is also trying to drum up interest.
“My feed is going to be dominated by a lot of football chat these next few weeks — not because I’m an expert, but because I’m so excited that New Zealand is hosting such a massive event...,” she wrote in an Instagram post. “There are still tickets to some games across New Zealand (Auckland, Dunedin, Wellington and Hamilton) so whether you’re an amateur enthusiast or an expert, this is your reminder to jump online and join in!”
New Zealand kick off their campaign against former champions Norway in Auckland on July 20.
Published in Dawn, July 14th, 2023
