By David Owen
July 2 – Clubs as diverse as Aalesunds FK, Columbus Crew and Deportivo Saprissa are set to receive bigger-than-expected World Cup windfalls, as a consequence of Costa Rica’s improbable run to the quarter-finals of Brazil 2014.
These Norwegian, US and Costa Rican teams are among those listed on FIFA’s website as current clubs of members of the Costa Rican squad, which has emerged as the 2014 World Cup’s surprise package with victories over Uruguay, Italy and Greece.
This relatively obscure trio would have known they were in line to get a small share of the $70 million set aside by FIFA to compensate the employers of players involved in the tournament. But one imagines the extent of Costa Rica’s progress might have left them pleasantly surprised, as it has so many other football fans.
The longer teams survive in the race for world football’s biggest prize, the more their clubs stand to receive. Under FIFA’s Brazil 2014 blueprint, clubs can obtain $2,800 a day for each of their players involved, with the relevant period for the purposes of payment stretching from two weeks before the opening match of the tournament until a day after elimination.
Whether a player actually appears in his country’s matches is not relevant. All clubs for which any given player has been registered in the past two years can receive a share of the FIFA payout on a pro rata basis.
In 2010, when FIFA made $40 million available, Barcelona received the highest payment of $866,267, with Bayern second and Chelsea third. This time, it looks highly likely that the biggest payments will top $1 million.
With Costa Rica’s continued involvement in the competition now assured until at least Saturday, when they face Robin van Persie’s Holland in Salvador, back-of-envelope arithmetic would suggest that the clubs which employ members of their squad already stand to get over $100,000 per player.
With only eight squads – and 184 players – still directly involved in the tournament, Arsenal have emerged as Bayern Munich’s closest challengers for contributing the most players to the quarter-final teams.
Based on the clubs assigned to players in the original squad-lists on FIFA’s website, the north London side has seven players still at Brazil 2014, against 10 for the German giants.
Clubs based in England, Germany, Italy, Spain and France supply 63.6% of World Cup survivors, with English clubs top of the pile, contributing 39 players, equivalent to more than one in five of those still fighting it out for the trophy.
Dutch clubs lie sixth, just behind this Big Five, and Costa Rican clubs have risen to seventh place, with nine players still involved in the competition. This puts the Central American nation above the likes of Portugal, Argentina, Brazil and Russia.
Clubs with most players still alive at the 2014 World Cup: Bayern Munich 10; Arsenal 7; Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain 6; Feyenoord, Internazionale, Manchester City, Napoli, Real Madrid, Tottenham Hotspur 5; Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, Manchester United, Newcastle United, Porto, PSV Eindhoven 4.
Countries whose clubs have the most surviving players at the 2014 World Cup: England 39, Germany 25, Italy 21, France, Spain 16, Holland 12, Costa Rica 9, Argentina, Portugal 7, Belgium, Brazil, Russia 4.
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