Sunderland AFC set for financial reward after producing SEVEN Lionesses

Phil Neville’s side were beaten by the USA on Tuesday evening, with no fewer than seven former Sunderland players featuring in the squad for the last four clash.

Steph Houghton, Jill Scott, Lucy Bronze, Demi Stokes, Carly Telford, Lucy Staniforth and Beth Mead have helped capture the hearts of the nation - and could now hand their former club a welcome boost.

That’s because the Black Cats look set to benefit financially from the involvement of their former players at the tournament, thanks to a new programme introduced by FIFA.

As they did with the World Cup last summer - when Sunderland received a handsome payment for the involvement of Jordan Pickford, among others - the world governing body will be dishing out payments to clubs as part of their Club Benefits Programme - which has been newly introduced for the Women’s World Cup.

The scheme aims to ‘reward clubs for providing players with a professional football pathway’ and will see a lump sum for each player shared between their current club and those who trained the players between the ages of 12 and 22.

And that means Sunderland could be set to pocket a five-figure sum thanks to their seven former players featuring in the tournament.

Payments are allocated depending on a number of factors, including how many years between the ages of 12 and 22 each player spent at Sunderland, which means total amounts are hard to calculate.

But for the likes of Bronze and Telford, who spent most of their formulatie years with the Lady Black Cats, payments could top £6,000 per player.

The total amount set to be heading to the Stadium of Light looks to be around the £35,000 mark - although it could fluctuate slightly.

What remains unclear, however, is whether any potential income would head to Sunderland or the Ladies’ section - which was previously run as a separate entity.

Regardless of where it ends up, a minor financial boost could be heading to Wearside this summer.