Chelsea could be set to receive a welcome boost to their transfer budget with FIFA set to reward clubs for their help with the ongoing World Cup.
A statement from FIFA read: "As part of its commitment to recognise the contribution that football clubs make to the successful staging of the FIFA World Cup, today FIFA started the application process for its Club Benefit Programme that will see $209million (£171.4million) distributed to clubs across the world. This initiative already saw 416 clubs from 63 member associations benefiting from the same amount following the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
"For the first time, clubs will be able to apply digitally through the FIFA Professional Football Landscape platform with approximately $10,000 (£8,202) to be received for each one of the days the relevant player remains with his national team during the FIFA World Cup 2022 and the official preparation period. The compensation will be paid to all clubs for which the footballer has played in the two years prior to the FIFA World Cup 2022."
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Chelsea had a total of 12 players who played, or are still playing, at this year's World Cup. Edouard Mendy, Kalidou Koulibaly (Senegal), Cesar Azpilicueta (Spain), Denis Zakaria (Switzerland), Kai Havertz (Germany) and Christian Pulisic (USA) have all been knocked out.
Overall, the aforementioned six earned Chelsea a total of $840,000 (£687,500) for their participation in the international competition. There are still six Chelsea players left in the World Cup, all of whom will be hoping to lift the most infamous trophy in world football.
Thiago Silva (Brazil), Mateo Kovacic (Croatia), Hakim Ziyech (Morocco), Conor Gallagher and Mason Mount (both England) are the players remaining in the tournament. So far, they have earned the club a total of $900,000 (£737,000). As for Raheem Sterling, who also plays for England, it is a bit more complicated.
Sterling returned home at the weekend after his house was broken in to. So the Chelsea winger would have earned his club at least $140,000 (£114,600) for his participation. Whether or not he returns - and how spending would be decided for his time away from the tournament - remains to be seen.
The best-possible scenario for Chelsea in terms of financial reward would be England reaching the final and taking on either Croatia or Brazil, who both have one Blues player representing them. If that was the case and England faced one of those two in the final, after beating Ziyech's Morocco in the semis, then Chelsea could end up earning around £2million in total from FIFA for their help with the World Cup.
That £2million could go nicely into Chelsea's transfer budget for the January transfer window. While it might not be a huge boost in terms of going out and buying a player, it's a nice sum that could be used for the wages of any new signing.
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