Revealed! The World Cup windfall that will boost cash-strapped Sunderland's coffers

When England face Sweden in the World Cup quarter-final tomorrow there are likely to be four former Black Cats involved.

For the Swedes will be Seb Larsson and Ola Toivonen, while on the other side will be Jordan Henderson and Jordan Pickford, players who blossomed on Wearside and have gone from strength to strength since moving to Merseyside.

The Black Cats would also rightly claim some credit for the development of Danny Rose and Danny Welbeck, who both had successful loan spells at the club in the early stages of their senior career.

In the Uruguay squad there is Sebastian Coates, while Belgium have Adnan Januzaj and Simon Mignolet in their ranks.

All in all, there are a remarkable nine former Sunderland players in the quarter-final squads, with a plethora of others already knocked out.

While many of those were loans, there is a financial benefit when it comes to those who are or were permanently contracted to the Black Cats.

The FIFA World Cup Club Benefits Programme sees clubs financially rewarded for their players’ involvement in the tournament.

Payments are made for ex-players as well as current ones in a policy that could have substantial benefits for the Black Cats.

And Sunderland look set to pocket over £610,000 from the programme – with that figure only set to rise.

Clubs are paid a set fee of $8,350 per player, per day during their involvement in the World Cup – which works out at just shy of £6,500.

Payments begin 14 days before the opening ceremony and end on the day immediately following a team’s elimination from the tournament.

For players currently registered with a club – and who have been since 2016 – a full payment is made to their current employer.

That means that Sunderland will pocket six-figure sums thanks to Wahbi Khazri and Bryan Oviedo’s participation in the tournament.

Together, the duo have earned Sunderland upwards of £350,000 – despite exiting the tournament during the group stages.

The pair are both likely to leave the club this summer after a mixed career in red-and-white, with Jack Ross giving them an extra two weeks off after their international duties.

A cash injection for their efforts will be a welcome bonus for the Black Cats as they seek to remove their financial burden permanently in the coming weeks.

For former players, the process is slightly more complicated with Sunderland only entitled to a percentage of their money dependent on when they departed the club.

But the Black Cats will still receive a third of the fees owing to former players Pickford, Larsson and Sebastian Coates.

Each of the trio have already earned the Wearsiders over £80,000 each – and that amount will only rise as their teams remain in the tournament.

All three players have qualified for the quarter-finals, further progress in the tournament could see Sunderland receive almost £100,000 per player. And with one of Pickford and Larsson guaranteed to progress to the last-four, further financial gain is inevitable. Should one of the trio reach the final, then Sunderland could earn £99,500 from that player alone.

Such finances will no doubt be a boost to the club’s new owners – although it is not known when the money will come Stewart Donald’s way.