Zurich (AP) – Hundreds of more soccer clubs will acquire $355 million in FIFA fund stakes from billions of 2026 World Cup revenues and release players to the men’s team.
FIFA said on Tuesday that players selected for each World Cup final tournament since 2010 shared a total of hundreds of millions of dollars among clubs selected to all players in the qualifying game.
Eritrea and Russia have been suspended from international football since 2022, but have not played qualifying games among FIFA’s 211 member federations.
“This new approach means that clubs releasing players for the FIFA World Cup 2026 qualifying will be compensated directly,” FIFA said in a statement.
FIFA previously agreed to a $355 million allocation for the 2026 edition of the US, Canada and Mexico as part of a new labor agreement with the European Clubs Association (ECA).
This was an increase from $209 million paid to clubs around the world from each of the last two editions that took place in Qatar in 2022 and in Russia in 2018.
FIFA said 440 clubs from 51 member countries have been paid from the 2022 program. This was calculated as a daily fee as long as the players were involved with the team in the tournament. Manchester City received the largest payment Almost $4.6 million.
Over 900 clubs across all 55 UEFA countries have been paid from similar European programs, which already include the National Team Competition qualifying games played for four years between 2024 and 2024.
FIFA created the Club Benefits Program, earning $40 million from the 2010 World Cup in South Africa as part of its contract with ECA, created two years ago.
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