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The Premier League has more players at this World Cup than at any previous edition of the tournament.
Across the 20 clubs in the top flight in 2025/26, plus newly-promoted trio Coventry City, Ipswich Town and Hull City, there are 182 players representing their country in North America.
However, pride is not the only reason that Premier League teams will keep a keen eye on their stars at the World Cup, as they stand to benefit financially, too.
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Why clubs will benefit if their players do well at the World Cup
Since the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, FIFA has paid clubs for releasing their players to represent their countries at the tournament as part of the FIFA Club Benefits Programme.
The money comes from revenue generated from the World Cup, with the governing body pledging to pay clubs across the planet $355m (approximately £267m) in total for this summer’s edition, up from $209m (£157m) for Qatar 2022.
The amount has sky-rocketed because this is the first World Cup cycle that FIFA will also compensate clubs for their players being involved in qualifying matches, which comprises $100m of the overall pot.
It is also the first time the World Cup has featured 48 teams, up from 32, which means more games and a longer tournament.
Payments are calculated on a “per player, per day” metric, which divides the total amount of money allocated by the total number of days spent at the World Cup by all of the players involved. All players are treated equally, so someone who plays 90 minutes of every match for their country will ‘cost’ FIFA the same as a team-mate who doesn’t make it off the bench.
For the 2026 tournament, clubs will earn $5,000 (£3,730) for every day that each of their stars spends at the World Cup, starting from May 25 - the date they had to release players to join their national squad, according to FIFA - right up until the day after their country's final match.
That means the players whose countries reach the final on July 19 will earn their clubs $285,000 (£214,000), as they will have been away for 57 days. The total rises further when counting qualifying matches, for which clubs earn $2,362 (£1,779) per day.
Therefore, a club like Manchester City - who have 19 players at the finals, including many with nations who are expected to progress to the latter stages - stand to earn millions from this World Cup.
City received the highest share from the 2022 finals of any club on the planet, taking home almost $4.6m (£3.4m) as a result of their players’ participation in Qatar. They earned slightly more than Barcelona ($4.5m), while Manchester United ($3.3m) and Chelsea ($3.2m) were the next highest-ranked Premier League teams.
Overall, English clubs received a whopping $37.7m (£28.4m) from the Qatar World Cup, with FIFA distributing the payments after the tournament via the member association, in this case the FA.
With both the total amount paid and the number of Premier League players at the World Cup rising further this summer, English clubs can expect an even bigger windfall to come their way soon.
