Sunderland will be rewarded for their record presence at this summer’s tournament

Sunderland are set for a seven-figure revenue boost this summer with a record number of players competing at the FIFA World Cup.

With twelve players competing in the USA, Mexico and Canada, the Black Cats are set for a healthy share of FIFA's expanded Club Benefit Programme. Sunderland have already banked revenue from the qualification period, after FIFA expanded the programme that sees clubs compensated for the time their players spend with their international squads. FIFA will pay out around €350 million this time around, with €100 million of that reserved for those who featured in the qualification period. It's estimated that clubs will receive €2,362 for each qualification fixture a player featured in a matchday squad. In Sunderland's case, a number of their players did not feature heavily for their nations in the qualification period but regulars such as Noah Sadiki, Granit Xhaka and Omar Alderete will have banked the club somewhere approaching €20,000.

€250 million has then been set aside for involvement for the tournament itself, which means that Sunderland's strong presence at the competition will hand the club a revenue boost. This is likely to be slightly reduced from Qatar 2022, as a result of the significantly expanded competition that sees 48 clubs entering the group stage.

That move has of course increased Sunderland's presence at the tournament: Granit Xhaka, Omar Alderete, Habib Diarra and Nilson Angulo are representing Switzerland, Paraguay, Senegal and Ecuador, while Noah Sadiki and Arthur Masuaku are representing DR Congo.

Chemsdine Talbi came off the bench for Morocco in their 1-1 draw with Brazil over the weekend, while Simon Adingra was an unused substitute for Ivory Coast in their 1-0 win over Ecuador. Robin Roefs, Brian Brobbey and Lutsharel Geertruida are all in the Netherlands squad, with Brobbey a late substitute in the 2-2 draw with Japan on Sunday night. Wilson Isidor is also at the tournament having elected to represent Haiti.

Sunderland are guaranteed a payout for the presence of all twelve of those players at the just over a fortnight-long group stage and also the preparation time that preceded it. FIFA estimates that they will pay out €5,000 per day, per player and so if we assume that each Sunderland player will be on duty for a minimum of three weeks, then we are looking at a fee per player of around €105,000. This will mean a total payout to the club of around £940,000.

What Sunderland’s final FIFA payout might look like

In reality, this will almost certainly rise above £1,000,000 once we take into account those qualification payments and once we take into account any player whose stay at the tournament is extended past the group stage. The top two teams from each group will qualify automatically, with the eight best third-placed finishers also progressing. While Omar Alderete's Paraguay suffered a heavy defeat against the USA in their opening fixture and Wilson Isidor's Haiti a narrow loss to Scotland, Sunderland's other players to feature so far have made a solid start.

Habib Diarra will make his bow at the tournament when Senegal face France on Tuesday night, while DR Congo play their first game against Portugal on Wednesday.

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