West Ham United to pocket six-figure sum from FIFA for World Cup involvement
West Ham United are set to benefit to the tune of £818,000 for their players’ involvement in the World Cup, according to The Athletic.
FIFA have been paying clubs £8,188 per day their players are in Qatar for the one-of-a-kind winter World Cup as compensation for the disruption to the regular season.
Every Premier League club has benefitted somewhat from the agreement with the Irons roughly in the middle of the pack having had just six players in Qatar.
Luckily for the Hammers, Nayef Aguerd and Torino loanee Nikola Vlasic are still in the Middle East having reached the semi-finals and are now set to play in the third-place playoff on Saturday (17 December).
Alphonse Areola also remains in Qatar with France, despite not playing a minute, but Declan Rice and Lucas Paqueta exited in the quarter-finals and Thilo Kehrer didn’t even make it out of the groups with Germany.
Every little helps
David Moyes will not be complaining to hear £818,000 making its way into his January transfer budget, even if it won’t make an enormous difference in the wild world of football nowadays.
That might be all that is required to reach a signing-on fee or an agent’s bonus should the club make any big winter moves having signed nobody last January.
Unfortunately, three of the club’s six World Cup stars are now unlikely to play any part when the Premier League returns with West Ham giving players ample time off once they are knocked out of the tournament.
It’s certainly not ideal to have Aguerd out, in particular, who would have been a near shoo-in to start against Arsenal on Boxing Day due to the lack of centre-halves at the club.
Kehrer now may have to slot in alongside Craig Dawson having spent much of the season at right-back as needs must comes into play for Moyes.