Manchester City are likely to top the list of distributions to clubs under FIFA\u2019s Club Benefits Programme (CBP) for the third World Cup in succession, calculations from The Athletic have found.<\/p>\n
To go alongside the largest World Cup in history, FIFA will also share out more money than ever before to clubs that release players for participation. The CBP pot for 2026 sits at $355million (\u00a3265m), a 70 per cent increase on the $209m paid to clubs whose players competed in each of the past two World Cups, in Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022.<\/p>\n
Of that $355million, $250m will be allocated in respect of players who performed at this summer\u2019s engorged, 48-team finals. Unlike in previous iterations, FIFA are also rewarding clubs that released players for qualifiers, too, with $100m allocated there. The remaining $5m, or whatever is left after administrative costs related to implementing the programme, will \u201cbe allocated to the benefit of club football\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Athletic\u2019s calculations cover that primary $250million tranche of payments and find, just as in 2018 and 2022, Manchester City come out on top. We estimate their representation at the 2026 finals has earned them $4.4million (\u00a33.3m).<\/p>\n
FIFA pays out on the basis of how many days finals participants are at the competition, with clubs entitled to roughly $5,000 per day, per player, between the mandatory release date of May 25 and the day after their national team\u2019s last match in the competition. City benefited from six players making it to the World Cup\u2019s final weekend: Rayan Cherki, Marc Guehi, Nico O\u2019Reilly, John Stones and James Trafford were each present in Miami for Saturday\u2019s third-place play-off between France and England, while Rodri started in Spain\u2019s 1-0 win against Argentina in the final on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The world\u2019s already richest clubs pepper the top of the list \u2014 Barcelona, second four years ago, are also second in our estimate \u2014 which stands to reason given it is their players who are most likely to feature on the world stage.<\/p>\n
By our reckoning, City earned over $1million more than the next highest-earning English club, Arsenal, though that was impacted by the latter reaching the Champions League final. That took place on May 30, five days after the mandatory release date; clubs playing in cup finals were, quite rightly, allowed to release players later, though that naturally reduced their CBP earnings. We reckon Arsenal\u2019s figure would have been almost $500,000 higher in other circumstances, but of course, they earned much more than that from reaching European club football\u2019s showpiece<\/a>.<\/p>\n We found it was not just the usual English suspects high up the list. Crystal Palace, with 12 players at these finals, were the Premier League\u2019s third-highest earners ($2.7million) by our calculation; Sunderland, whose players scored eight goals this summer, a mark only four clubs topped, were the sixth-highest in England and 13th-highest overall ($2.2m).<\/p>\n Premier League clubs contributed around 13 per cent of this summer\u2019s 1,248 players, more than any other division in world football and, correspondingly, hoovered up more money than anywhere else. We estimate the 2026-27 Premier League crop will receive $34.2million from the CBP, well ahead of the next-highest: Germany\u2019s Bundesliga, with $18.8m.<\/p>\n Yet even as the richest clubs enjoy the largest share of the spoils, the amounts they receive will pale in comparison to the cost of employing the same players who\u2019ve generated those sums. City\u2019s $4.4million might top everyone else, but it is a fairly paltry sum when set alongside a full club wage bill in 2024-25 of around $608m (\u00a3468m).<\/p>\n