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FIFA World Cup benefits tops agenda at Club Football Committee meeting

2014 FIFA World Cup

2014 FIFA World Cup

The club benefits programme for the 2014 FIFA World Cup™, which has seen USD 70 million recently distributed to 396 clubs, was one of the key topics on the agenda for the Committee for Club Football during its meeting at the Home of FIFA in Zurich on Tuesday. The committee’s first session of 2015 was opened by FIFA President Blatter and chaired by FIFA Executive Committee member Jacques Anouma.

Committee members received an update on the club benefits programme that has been widely embraced by the FIFA membership, with over 1,030 clubs submitting applications and 396 eligible to receive a share of the benefits from Brazil 2014. Calculations in terms of the distribution of funds were based on certain factors such as the number of players per club and the number of days each player was at the World Cup. Further information is available via the links on the right side of the page.

It follows a decision by the FIFA Executive Committee in 2008 to allocate an amount from the benefits of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™ (USD 40 million) and the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™ (USD 70 million) for member associations to pass on to their clubs whose players contributed to the success of these competitions.

Another topic on the agenda relating to finances was the Club Protection Programme (CPP) which was introduced by FIFA in 2012 to ensure clubs whose players are injured during international “A” matches listed on the international match calendar are indemnified. For the period 2012-2014, 126 cases were settled with a total of EUR 39.3 million being paid to clubs under the programme. CPP has been extended for the period 2015 to 2018, and CPP now also covers women’s international “A” matches. The total cost for this cycle is estimated at EUR 100 million. Overall, the feedback from clubs to FIFA has been hugely positive.

Meanwhile, in relation to goal-line technology, statistics on the number of GLT incidents during competitive matches for the period 2012-2014 were presented. This included data from FIFA’s own competitions (e.g. the FIFA World Cup™, the FIFA Confederations Cup, the FIFA Club World Cup) as well as data collected from domestic leagues such as the English Premier League and the Dutch Eredivisie. This information showed that the GLT system was called into action in more than 5% of the matches that it was used in. Applied to a standard league, this translates into one incident every two match days. GLT will again make history this year with Canada 2015 becoming the first FIFA Women’s World Cup™ to feature the technology.

The committee also spent time reflecting on matters relating to international transfers including the progress made towards banning third-party ownership (TPO) of players’ economic rights. A report was given on FIFA TMS looking back at the developments of 2014, such as the successful launch of the Domestic Transfer Matching System (DTMS), and looking ahead to the future with projects such as the Global Player Exchange (GPX) concept expected to launch in late 2015.

Committee members also received updates on FIFA’s ongoing fight against match manipulation, racism and doping – three of the biggest problems facing the game today, which all have considerable negative ramifications for club football.

Finally, the committee reviewed the progress of the Task Force for the International Match Calendar 2018-2024 and the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar™, which will hold its next meeting in Doha on 23 February 2015 with a decision on the Qatar 2022 dates expected during the FIFA Executive Committee meeting in March.