It’s 29 days to the FIFA 2022 World Cup in Qatar and in no time the much anticipated special Mundial would be on with excitement and fun.
Last week, soccer clubs around the world were invited by FIFA to apply for money from a fund of $209 million set aside for teams that release players for this year’s World Cup in Qatar.
FIFA anticipates that the scheme will mean a payment of $10,000 per player for each day he remains with his national team at the World Cup itself and during the official preparation period. The preparation period starts on November 14 and the Tournament ends on December 18.
“As part of its commitment to recognize the contribution that football clubs make to the successful staging of the FIFA World Cup™, today FIFA started the application process for its Club Benefits Programme that will see 209 million dollars distributed to clubs worldwide.”
The final amount a club can claim will be dependent on the more participants a club has, and how far each of those players progresses in the tournament.
Any club that a player has been registered with within the two years before the World Cup will be eligible for a share of the daily payout.
The “Club Benefits Program” was created in a 2008 deal for FIFA to recognize the newly launched ECA as a more democratic representative of teams’ interests.
FIFA paid $40 million into the fund for players who went to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, and it was $70 million four years later for the tournament in Brazil.
FIFA gave out $8,530 per player per day in the 2018 World Cup, on top of $10 million to each country whose team made the group stage.
The 2018 payments went to more than 400 clubs across 63 countries.
Manchester City earned $5 million from its players’ participation in the 2018 tournament in Russia.
Ikechukwu Ezenwa was the only home-based player in the Super Eagles squad to the 2018 world cup in Russia. The 34-year-old who was with Enyimba at that time, but was previously of Ifeanyi Ubah FC, was an unused substitute in all 3 of Nigeria’s group E games as they exited the tournament in the first round.
Despite not seeing action, both Ifeanyi Ubah FC and Enyimba international were entitled to half of the $237,720 participation money accrued by Ezenwa during his time at the Super Eagles world cup camp. The money paid by FIFA through the NFF was reportedly shared by both teams, each getting a sum of $118,860 (N43,205,610 at that time).
Effects of Super Eagles’ failure to qualify for The World Cup
Months have passed, but Nigerians still bemoan the national team’s disappointing ouster at the last world cup qualification round.
Footballers, officials, fans, media personalities, content creators, and business owners, at home and abroad, who had made plans for the big Mundial have been left counting their losses and thinking about what could have been.
Asides from a drop in FIFA rankings, there is also a significant loss of income for the NFF, now and in the future. The team will now miss out on $12.5m from FIFA for failing to qualify – a $2.5m preparation fee plus $10m for qualifying for the group stages.
NPFL clubs, on the other hand, missed out on a potential source of revenue, as none would be eligible for the $10,000 bumper-earning payday for clubs with players at the world cup.
The last international break saw Ebube Duru as the only NPFL representative in the team. 8 players had been invited to the camp for the friendlies against Mexico and Ecuador, while 2 were retained for the AFCON qualification matches against Sierra Leone and Sao Tome and Principe in June. So It’d have been left to be seen if the coach, Jose Peseiro, had plans for more home-based Nigerian players to break into the team for the world cup.
There are 19 days between the start date of the official preparation of the world cup, and the 3rd matchday of group E. So clubs would be entitled to a sum to the tune of $190,000 per player involved at this stage. So, depending on the number of players who had made the squad, Nigerian clubs would have potentially made that much, and more if the team progressed to the knockout rounds.
This is very painful but so pinnick. Dare. Odegbami and Eguavon wanted it for sacking Rhor