UEFA have decided to released £61.1million in money to help clubs during the current financial difficulties they face amid the Covie-19 pandemic. London clubs like West Ham, Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, Chelsea, and Crystal Palace who have plenty of internationals would have received money for allowing their players to take part in international matches this season and then from the Euros that would have taken place this summer. The Hammers were likely to have at least Declan Rice, Andriy Yarmolenko, Lukasz Fabianski and Pablo Fornals called up for their countries this summer, with others perhaps earning call ups. An initial payment for those players used in the qualifiers would normally have been paid after the European Championship play-offs, but now UEFA have decided in their latest meeting on Thursday to release those funds sooner.
UEFA said “The UEFA Executive Committee today decided to release immediately the club benefit payments related to the clubs’ contribution to UEFA national team competitions in light of the current crisis and the financial difficulties many clubs are facing across Europe,” read a UEFA statement. Such payments were originally scheduled to be made on completion of the European Qualifiers play-offs, but given the challenges faced by clubs that are having to meet ongoing financial commitments while seeing revenues dry up during the COVID-19 lockdowns, payments will now be made immediately, as follows:
€50million (£43.6million) will go to clubs having released players for the 39 national teams not involved in the European Qualifiers play-offs
€17.7million (£15.4million) will go to clubs having released players for the 16 national teams taking part in the European Qualifiers play-offs (not including payments for the play-off matches, which will be paid on completion of the play-offs).
The balance of €2.7m (£2.3million) – related to players released for the play-offs – will be distributed upon completion of the play-off matches in the autumn.
For UEFA EURO 2020, a minimum of €200million (£175million) is available for distribution to clubs as agreed in the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between UEFA and the ECA, which was renewed in 2019.
Based on the payment distribution mechanism approved by the UEFA Executive Committee, €70m will be distributed among those clubs which released players for the European Qualifiers and the UEFA Nations League, and the remaining €130milliom (£113million) will be distributed among those clubs releasing players for UEFA EURO 2020.
These payments will benefit a very high number of clubs all over Europe and will give them vital breathing room at a critical time. 676 clubs from the 55 UEFA member associations will receive amounts ranging from €3,200 up to €630,000 for their contribution to the European Qualifiers and the UEFA Nations League for the 2018–20 period.
In all cases, the clubs to benefit from these payments are those with which the players concerned were registered during the relevant release period. Only players released by a club belonging to a UEFA member association are taken into account. The full list of the clubs together with the total amount received by each club will be communicated after the final tournament has been played.
