Clubs to get World Cup windfall

Clubs with players involved in next year’s World Cup in South Africa are for the first time to receive compensation out of a 40-million-dollar pool, FIFA announced on Thursday.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the FIFA executive committee on Robben Island in Table Bay off Cape Town, on the eve of the draw for the finals which take place from June 11-July 11.

It follows growing reluctance on the part of some clubs to make their players available for international matches for fear of injury or fatigue.

FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke said that for each player involved each club would receive 1,600 dollars a day during the tournament.

“This is a change and clubs recognise it as an insurance against their players being injured,” he said.

“They recognise with this money that they can’t take any action against FIFA or through CAS (Court of Arbitration in Sport).”

Valcke said that the compensation fund would also apply to the 2014 finals in Brazil.

He also said that total prize money for next year’s tournament was up 61 percent from Germany in 2006 to 420 million dollars.

The winners will pocket 30 million dollars with 24 million dollars going to the runners-up and nine million dollars to the last-placed team

One million dollars had already been sent to each team to help with their preparations.