A new report from the Federation of International Football Association, FIFA, showed that the English Premier League champions, Manchester City, received the most money from having their star players playing at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
The Club Benefits Programme Report, released by the world governing body on Thursday, detailed the astronomical sums collected by teams all across the world.
A total of $209m was shared by FIFA to 440 clubs all over the world with a payment of $10,950 given per player, per day, Daily Mail sports reports.
The amount teams received was worked out by the number of days each player spent at the World Cup, starting from the day they were released for international duty and ending after their final match at the tournament.
For instance, if a player was away from their club for 20 days, they would receive 20 times the £8,429 daily payment.
There is also the added benefit that the program rewards not just the player’s current club, but also the team they played for the previous two seasons, which means that some clubs received money despite not having any official representatives in the showpiece tournament.
According to the report, European clubs collected by far the most money at $158.90m, which dwarfs the second highest of those under the Asian Football Confederation, who received a meager $23.78m.
Within Europe, English clubs earned the highest money from the World Cup through FIFA’s program, earning $37.70 million.
Manchester City were by far the largest beneficiaries in the Premier League, earning $4.60 million or having 16 players at the World Cup.
Chelsea and Manchester United followed close behind, both receiving $3.30 million , with Tottenham receiving $2.80 million and Liverpool receiving $2.40 million. Arsenal received $1.9 for their players at the World Cup.
ManCity was the only English team in the top five in Europe. They narrowly beat out Barcelona, which came in second with $4.50 million, and Bayern Munich, which came in third with $4.30 million.
Real Madrid and PSG tied for fourth and fifth place, earning $3.80 million.