Celtic, Rangers and others to benefit as FIFA includes qualifiers in World Cup payout scheme

Scottish clubs are set to further benefit from their players being involved in international football, as FIFA announces changes to how it shares money from the World Cup.

The world football governing body has traditionally paid clubs who release players for the finals tournament every four years, in a compensation scheme that can be lucrative for clubs with top international stars.

Celtic were paid just over £500,000 for releasing four players for the Qatar World Cup in 2022 as Daizen Maeda, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Josip Juranovic and Aaron Mooy represented their national side. Numerous Premiership sides have benefited from previous tournaments.

However, those compensation schemes only covered appearances at the tournament and not the road to the finals.

Now, the governing body has said it is expanding its Club Benefits Programme so that qualifying matches are included, and a pot of $355m (£259m) has been agreed with the European Club Association to be shared among clubs.

FIFA have yet to release full details of the scheme but at the Qatar World Cup finals it paid out $209m (£153m) to 440 clubs, with the world governing body indicating the overall sum represented a payment of $10,950 (£8,000) per day for every player.

Players from across the Scottish Premiership have been involved in their nation’s World Cup qualifiers ahead of next year’s tournament in USA, Canada and Mexico.

At Celtic, Kasper Schmeichel, Anthony Ralston, Kieran Tierney, Benjamin Nygren, Liam Scales, Johnny Kenny and Viljami Sinisalo were all called up for the last round of European qualifying, while Rangers had John Souttar, Thelo Aasgard, Oliver Antman, Bojan Miovski, Liam Kelly and Nicolas Raskin away for the continental group games.

Other Premiership clubs are also set for a pay-out. Hearts had Zander Clark away with Scotland, Hibs had Grant Hanley and Kieron Bowie away with Scotland.

Aberdeen’s Dmitar Mitov, Kristers Tobers and Topi Keskinen were all called up for UEFA World Cup qualifiers, while St Mirren’s Killian Phillips and Dundee United’s Iurie Iovu are also among the players earning money for their clubs.

“The enhanced edition of the FIFA Club Benefits Programme for the FIFA World Cup 2026 is going a step further by recognising financially the huge contribution that so many clubs and their players around the world make to the staging of both the qualifiers and the final tournament,” said FIFA President Gianni Infantino.

“A record USD 355 million will be distributed to clubs for the release of their players, and this reinforces our solid collaboration with the European Club Association and clubs worldwide as we all look forward to a groundbreaking and globally inclusive edition of the FIFA World Cup next year.”

“At ECA we are pleased to have collaborated with FIFA to support the development of this innovative new FIFA Club Benefits Programme. It will ensure even more clubs across the world are rewarded for releasing players and highlights exactly how ECA’s Memorandum of Understanding with FIFA supports the ongoing growth of the global club game,” said ECA Chairman Nasser Al-Khelaïfi.

“Clubs play a pivotal role in the success of national team football and this initiative recognises every element of it, from early development through to release for the most important games. We look forward to continuing to work closely with FIFA, and the global football community, to ensure we keep driving growth and development of international football.”