FC Barcelona has once again profited economically from its participation in the World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada. According to as.com, the Catalan club will receive €2,893,533 directly from FIFA's coffers for releasing its international players during the world tournament. A figure that, while respectable, is significantly lower than what it obtained just a year ago in Qatar.

Sixteen players, eight in the final

Barcelona has been one of the big beneficiaries of this tournament thanks to the participation of sixteen of its players in the competition. But the real stroke of luck came with the presence of eight Barcelona players in Sunday's final, all of them members of the Spanish national team that faced Messi's Argentina. That deep involvement in the tournament's decisive stages is what has allowed the club to multiply its income from FIFA.

FIFA's payment system: less money, more nations

To understand why Barcelona earns less than in 2022 despite having representation in a final, it is necessary to understand how World Cup prize money is distributed. FIFA distributed a pool of 355 million dollars (€303.1 million) among clubs with players in the tournament. An amount higher than Qatar, but divided differently:

• Qualifying phase: 100 million dollars. Clubs receive 2,362 dollars per player and match, regardless of whether they play minutes. Barcelona earned €153,375 from this phase.
• Final phase: 250 million dollars. Here the criteria changes: clubs earn 5,000 dollars daily (€4,330) per player from the first day of the squad gathering until the day after their last match.

The problem is that the number of nations has increased from 32 to 48 teams, so the prize money is shared among many more tables. That is why Barcelona pockets less than in Qatar, where it earned €4.4 million.

The fine print of the regulations

FIFA has its conditions. Clubs can only receive the full daily premium of €4,330 if the player has been registered at the club during the two seasons prior to the tournament. This directly affects Barcelona in cases such as Joan García, whose premium must be shared with Espanyol for his recent time with the white-and-blue club.

Other players such as Marcus Rashford, Joao Cancelo, Hamza Abdelkarim and Anthony Gordon also have special situations that affect the full payment of their premiums.

An economic reality in modern football

Although nearly three million euros may sound like an astronomical sum, the reality is that for a club of Barcelona's size it represents secondary income in its annual accounts. However, in a context where the Barcelona club has had to make significant budget adjustments in recent years, every euro from FIFA is welcome. The money allocated to compensate clubs for releasing international players is, ultimately, a recognition that World Cup tournaments generate millions in revenue and that clubs deserve to share in that profitability, even if indirectly.