Chris G Whyte
Private Member
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2008
So, the Daily Ranger was making the claim that Celtic were in line for an £800,000 windfall due to four of their players being at the World Cup. Because the Daily Ranger is a fucking sham of a paper, I decided to look it up myself.
Remarkably, it’s about right. First of all, here’s the link with the main information:
2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™ - News - How do clubs benefit from the World Cup? - FIFA.com
To break it down, a player who is at the tournament as a member of a full squad is paid $8,530 per day, including the fortnight beforehand. In Celtic’s case, they’ve got four players at the World Cup:
Rogic: Australia
Boyata: Belgium
Lustig: Sweden
Gamboa: Costa Rica
Going from the 1st of June, Celtic will effectively net a guaranteed total of $921,240 (Australia finish on the 26th of June, Costa Rica and Sweden on the 27th, and Belgium on the 28th) from the group stages, and assuming none of those teams go any further. Personally, I think Belgium are good for at least the quarter-finals given the look of their draw and I think Sweden will also navigate their group. That means that Lustig and Boyata would contribute another $110,890 to the pot.
This gives a combined total of $1,032,130 (£772,910) in likely cash, but a guaranteed £689,871.
So, £800,000 is about right; and it only really stands to increase from that estimate if Australia, Sweden and Costa Rica overreach themselves, or the Belgians threaten to win the tournament (they have the talent, I’m just not sure there’s enough goals in the team).
An interesting part from the article, however, states this:
”Any payments the club is entitled to receive under the programme will be distributed via the Member Association to which the club is affiliated after the successful staging of the World Cup”.
In other words, it’s up to the SFA to distribute it. Now, the egalitarian part of me wishes the SFA would give Celtic the majority and redistribute the rest; but they’re Celtic players, the club takes all of the risk in letting them play, and it’s because they’re playing at Parkhead that they’re being called up. Not giving Celtic the full share would, in my view, be unfair. And besides, if the SFA DIDN’T dish it out to Celtic we’d all hear about it.
But my point here is this –
Herein lies another clear incentive for the SFA to sort out our national fucking game, and GET SCOTLAND TO MAJOR TOURNAMENTS.
Not only is there prestige in doing so, as well as developmental exposure to the top levels of the international game, there’s money to be made for clubs who send their players to the World Cup. We could have a meta-debate about scouting lower nations that are certain to qualify and cashing in, but the bottom line is that a squad of 23 is worth around £4,000,000 to Scottish clubs. And if you’re wondering whether or not that’s very much, it averages to £333,333 per top-flight team. For perspective, our league sponsor is Ladbrokes and they’re ponying up £4,000,000 over two years, for all of Scottish football.
The SFA has got to start doing its job.
Remarkably, it’s about right. First of all, here’s the link with the main information:
2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™ - News - How do clubs benefit from the World Cup? - FIFA.com
To break it down, a player who is at the tournament as a member of a full squad is paid $8,530 per day, including the fortnight beforehand. In Celtic’s case, they’ve got four players at the World Cup:
Rogic: Australia
Boyata: Belgium
Lustig: Sweden
Gamboa: Costa Rica
Going from the 1st of June, Celtic will effectively net a guaranteed total of $921,240 (Australia finish on the 26th of June, Costa Rica and Sweden on the 27th, and Belgium on the 28th) from the group stages, and assuming none of those teams go any further. Personally, I think Belgium are good for at least the quarter-finals given the look of their draw and I think Sweden will also navigate their group. That means that Lustig and Boyata would contribute another $110,890 to the pot.
This gives a combined total of $1,032,130 (£772,910) in likely cash, but a guaranteed £689,871.
So, £800,000 is about right; and it only really stands to increase from that estimate if Australia, Sweden and Costa Rica overreach themselves, or the Belgians threaten to win the tournament (they have the talent, I’m just not sure there’s enough goals in the team).
An interesting part from the article, however, states this:
”Any payments the club is entitled to receive under the programme will be distributed via the Member Association to which the club is affiliated after the successful staging of the World Cup”.
In other words, it’s up to the SFA to distribute it. Now, the egalitarian part of me wishes the SFA would give Celtic the majority and redistribute the rest; but they’re Celtic players, the club takes all of the risk in letting them play, and it’s because they’re playing at Parkhead that they’re being called up. Not giving Celtic the full share would, in my view, be unfair. And besides, if the SFA DIDN’T dish it out to Celtic we’d all hear about it.
But my point here is this –
Herein lies another clear incentive for the SFA to sort out our national fucking game, and GET SCOTLAND TO MAJOR TOURNAMENTS.
Not only is there prestige in doing so, as well as developmental exposure to the top levels of the international game, there’s money to be made for clubs who send their players to the World Cup. We could have a meta-debate about scouting lower nations that are certain to qualify and cashing in, but the bottom line is that a squad of 23 is worth around £4,000,000 to Scottish clubs. And if you’re wondering whether or not that’s very much, it averages to £333,333 per top-flight team. For perspective, our league sponsor is Ladbrokes and they’re ponying up £4,000,000 over two years, for all of Scottish football.
The SFA has got to start doing its job.