Nigeria Professional Football League side FC Ifeanyiubah will benefit from the cash windfall by World’s football governing body FIFA at this summer’s Men’s World Cup in Russia.
Goalkeeper Ikechukwu Ezenwa who joined Enyimba from FC Ifeanyiubah last December is the only locally based player selected in Nigeria’s final 23-man squad and both his former and present clubs will partake in FIFA’s contribution to clubs during the tournament.
The FIFA Council on October 27 last year confirmed contributions for all FIFA World Cup participants and in that regard the FIFA Club Benefits Programme is an integral component of the World Cup.
FIFA has set aside a sum of $209m (up from $70m disbursed in 2014) for distribution to the clubs which the seven hundred and thirty six (736) players at the Mundial represent in recognition of their roles in the players’ development.
According to FIFA’s distribution process of the largesse, a sum of 8,530 dollars will be paid on each player per day, starting from fourteen days before the opening match (May 31,2018).
The amount will be paid throughout the time spent by the player in Russia until a day after his team might have ended their campaign. This means that Ikechukwu Ezenwa’s club will be paid for twenty eight days at the very least, because Nigeria’s last group game against Argentina comes up on June 26.
Why FC Ifeanyiubah and not Enyimba?
“The amount of around USD 8,530 is multiplied by the number of days each player is at the World Cup, starting two weeks before the Opening Match until the day following the last match of his team (total per player). The total per player is then distributed to the club (s) with which the player was registered during the previous two years,” stated the FIFA document made available to www.aclsports.com
By this, it means that FC Ifeanyiubah, the club Ezenwa joined in mid-season of 2016 football season and where he spent eighteen months until December will get at least 2/3rd of the total sum of #85,982,400 (according to the present N360 to one dollar rate).
Part of the final third will go to his current club Enyimba after deductions might have been made based on tax and other relevant deductions.
Ezenwa was assigned Nigeria’s number one jersey in the official team list sent to FIFA by the Nigerian Football Federation on Sunday.
Interesting development… That means the bulk of the money for this will go to foreign clubs the teams represent. So should this not spur our local sides to really work to develop players that can make our WC squads assuming we can make it in the future? That way they get a double windfall, immediate cash and some sort of payout from a transfer if the player then does well enough at the mundial to earn a foreign transfer