Scottish clubs in cash-boost as FIFA share £1.6m for releasing World Cup stars

FIFA have shared £1.65million in payments to seven Scottish Premiership clubs for releasing players to participate in last year’s World Cup in Qatar.

New figures released by the world’s governing body showed that reigning SPFL champions Celtic were handed the largest sum due to number of days spent competing at the tournament by four first-team stars who all played for nations that reached the latter stages.

Glasgow rivals Rangers were next in line, with Hearts, Dundee United, Hibernian and St Johnstone also earning a cash-boost for representation at the tournament. Bottom of the list were St Mirren, despite midfielder Keanu Baccus reaching the last-16 stage with Australia.

13 players were involved in total, with FIFA paying out £10,000 for every day a player was away. However, that money was shared among every team they has played for since the 2020/21 season.

A total of £200m was dished out to 440 clubs across the globe with Premier League champions Manchester City top of the list with £3.5m, closely followed by Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and PSG.

Here, we take a look at how much each Scottish club gained…

1. The 7 Scottish clubs who received a cash-boost from FIFA for releasing World Cup stars
   Photo: Rob Casey – SNS Group

Daizen Maeda (Japan; last 16), Josip Juranovic (Croatia; Semi-Finals), Cameron Carter-Vickers (USA; last 16) and Aaron Mooy (Australia; last 16)

2. Celtic – £509k
   Daizen Maeda (Japan; last 16), Josip Juranovic (Croatia; Semi-Finals), Cameron Carter-Vickers (USA; last 16) and Aaron Mooy (Australia; last 16) Photo: Alan Harvey – SNS Group

Borna Barisic (Croatia; Semi-Finals)

3. Rangers – £317,500
   Borna Barisic (Croatia; Semi-Finals)

Nathaniel Atkinson, Kye Rowles and Cammy Devlin (Australia; last 16)

4. Hearts – £250k
   Nathaniel Atkinson, Kye Rowles and Cammy Devlin (Australia; last 16) Photo: Ross Parker – SNS Group