Manchester City are the highest earning football club in the just-concluded 2022 World Cup.
The 2022 World Cup came with a slight inconvenience to domestic League football across major FIFA member associations.
All the top five leagues in Europe, including other leagues had to put their football calendar on hold to honor the one-month tournament which was hosted for the first time in the Middle East amid the bustle of major leagues across the world.
The Premier League, LaLiga, Serie A, French Ligue, German Bundesliga, Dutch Eredivisie, Portugal Primeira Division, all suspended league actions to join their respective national teams for the most prestigious national football competition in the world.
After the hassles and inconveniences to clubs and domestic league organizers, the Club Benefits Report Programme, which is designed to compensate all stakeholders in their contributions in staging the World Cup, released by FIFA has shown that clubs who released their players for the 2022 World Cup have been paid handsomely by the football body.
The Club Benefits Programme Report in details the amount pocketed by each clubs for releasing their players for the tournament.
Based on the report, payments are made to clubs based on the number of their players that feature in the tournament.
This implies clubs who had players in the national teams that crashed out of the tournament in the group stages are more likely to earn less than clubs who had players in the national teams that went as far as the final of the tournament.
Another critical factor determining how much a club is earning is the number of their players who make the World Cup squad of their national teams.
Clubs who have five or six players included in the group stages earn more than clubs who have one or two players playing through to the final because the amount per player is the same irrespective of the stage. Also, payments are made based on the number of days a player spent in the tournament irrespective of his inclusion or non-inclusion in the starting lineup.
A breakdown of FIFA Club Benefits Programme Report
From FIFA’s table, 440 clubs across the world have benefited from the Club Benefits Programme with about £160.90million paid out.
The total amount dolled out each day per player from the programme is £8,429million. It is also understood earnings are calculated from the day the benefitting clubs release their player for the tournament to the day the player played his final match.
The report shows European clubs are the highest earners pocketing £122.32million followed by Asian clubs, who pocketed a paltry £18.31million.
A further break down of the report shows English clubs, led by Manchester City, were the biggest earners in Europe as they raked in £29.03million, followed by La Liga (£18.78million), German Bundesliga (£16.07million), Serie A (£14.40million), and Ligue 1 (£12.78million).
Manchester City are the highest-paid club in FIFA Club Benefits Report Programme.
Leading the list of clubs who have benefited immensely from the Club Benefits Programme is Manchester City.
Manchester City had 16 players in 2022 World Cup. Two players were knocked out in the group stage – Kevin De Bruyne of Belgium and IIkay Gundogan of Germany.
Three players made it to round 16 – Aymeric Laporte and Rodri of Spain and Manuel Akanji of Switzerland.
Five players reached the quarterfinal – Bernardo Silva, Joao Cancelo, and Ruben Dias of Portugal, Ederson of Brazil, and Nathan Ake of Netherlands.
One player reached the final – Julian Alvarez of Argentina.
In all, Manchester City pocketed £3.54million for all their 16 heads in the tournament due to the number of days they spent at the tournament.
Exact Figures of top 10 earners from Club Benefits Programme
Manchester City $4,596,445.04
Barcelona $4,538,955.26
Bayern Munich $4,331,809.53
PSG $3,835,389.81
Real Madrid $3,836,302.35
Ajax $3,495,013.80
Chelsea $3,255,016.77
Manchester United $3,326,194.59
Atletico Madrid $3,232,203.36
Juventus $3,048,783.58 (Source: fifa.com)
