After Scotland’s qualification for the 2026 World Cup, there are now a number of Celtic players who will be heading to the tournament next summer.
Celtic defender Kieran Tierney’s Scotland heroics helped send Steve Clarke’s team to North America where the team will play in either Mexico, Canada or the United States.
As ever, with these big national tournaments, any club player heading to the World Cup with their country will earn Celtic a pretty penny.
And 67 Hail Hail’s finance expert, Adam Williams, has just shared how much Celtic stand to earn from FIFA depending on how many players qualify for the World Cup.
Why Celtic will earn a seven-figure World Cup sum from FIFA’s £750m pot
FIFA will have plenty of cash to go around, and when next summer’s tournament kicks off in North America, Celtic will be due a huge wedge of that.
Williams told 67 Hail Hail, “In general terms, there is more and more money filtering down from FIFA to the club game. About £750m in prize money went to clubs from the Club World Cup, for example, with another £200m or so ringfenced for solidarity payments to clubs who weren’t competing.
“On top of that, you have the Club Benefits Programme, which effectively pays clubs a day rate when they release players for FIFA-sanctioned events, like the World Cup.
“These schemes wouldn’t materialise without lobbying from the European Club Association, which recently rebranded as European Football Clubs.
“The Club Benefits Programme’s day rate used to be about £8,000, but FIFA recently announced that the total pot was increasing by about 70 per cent thanks to lobbying from European Football Clubs.”
How much Celtic could pay FIFA ‘per player, per day’
Williams then goes on to explain how Celtic could earn a seven-figure pay day from FIFA depending on how many players head to the tournament.
The finance expert continued, “Exactly how this increase is going to be distributed, we don’t know, but let’s assume it’s just a straight 70 per cent increase in the day rate for now – we can adjust it later. That would equate to around £13,500. That doesn’t sound like a lot of money to a club like Celtic, whose revenue in the last financial year was £144m. However, it’s £13,500 per player, per day.
“If, as you suggest is possible, as many as 19 players make it to the World Cup proper, that’s 19 players who are going to be at the tournament from 11 June to at least 27 June.
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“That adds up to about £4.1m. The final amount will probably be lower than that because I imagine that some of the 70 per cent increase will be set aside for the extra teams competing in the 58-team tournament this time, rather than a linear 70 per cent increase in the day rate.
“But even adjusting for that, I think we’re talking at least £2-3m. If Celtic players go deeper into the tournament, that figure starts to increase, of course.”
Celtic could potentially have 16 players at next summer’s World Cup and, depending on how the play-offs go next March, there could be as many as 19 players heading to the FIFA tournament.
