Clubs to Profit From Internationals

By: Martha | January 21st, 2008

UEFA logo As Chris reported last week, the G14 is being disappeared, along with the lawsuits the members clubs had been bringing against UEFA and FIFA in an effort to earn compensatation for letting players participate in international tournaments. Obviously, though, the 18 member clubs of the G14 (counting is hard) didn’t just go away quietly — they disbanded because they were promised the compensation they’d been after, and UEFA today finally revealed what Arsenal will earn when Cesc Fabregas pulls on his Spain kit at Euro 2008.

Starting with Euro 2008, for every day a player “is involved” in the final stages of a tournament (meaning, one assumes, the non-qualifers of the Euros and the World Cup), his club will get €4000. EVERY DAY. As far as I can tell, the player doesn’t even have to make the bench, he just needs to be in the squad. The money’s not just for the player’s current club, though — it’ll be split between that club, and any other club for which he’s played over the past 24 months. (I assume there are very detailed new EUFA coefficients to figure out who gets every penny.) Which, really, make sense — the transfer window will open before the Euros, so some participants could well be owned by clubs for whom they’ve never played by the end of the thing. So, for example, if Marco Amelia stays Italy’s #2 keeper and the Azzurri reach the final match, Livorno and whatever club he’s with come June will split in the neighborhood of €88,000, even if he doesn’t touch the field. Not too shabby.

Anticipating a healthy bill, UEFA have set aside €43.5 million for Euro 2008 and an additional €55 million for the 2012 tournament. FIFA, meanwhile, are setting aside a total of about €75 million as compensation for clubs generously contributing players to the next two World Cups. Rest assured, the clubs will still bitch and moan about how tired everyone is when they arrive at training in August, but at least they’ll be able to dry their tears with handfuls of Euros.