World soccer ruling body FIFA is said to be considering paying World Cup bonuses to member associations that qualified for the FIFA World Cup tournament, a move geared towards preventing row over bonuses especially by African players.
After bonus row issues involving Cameroon, Ghana, and Nigeria at the 2014 World Cup, FIFA, under now-ousted President Sepp Blatter, suggested they would mandate member associations to show signed agreements with players ahead of the next tournament in 2018.
Now, it appears the new leadership of the world body is going a step further to try to prevent crisis within the organisations by paying the bonuses ahead of kickoff.
It has already been widely reported that Nigeria’s federation will pay the 37 players who took part in qualifying the team for Russia equally, with the players getting equal portions of the $12.5 million qualifying bonus.
According to said source, the full amount is set to be paid in advance of the tournament, rather than being split into a $2.5million preparation fee, and $10 million after the event.
A FIFA spokesman did not deny nor confirm the proposed change, when contacted by KweseEspn sports via email: “Please note, that the matter you mention in your query will be communicated in due time.”
Prize money awarded to the 32 World Cup qualifying teams is expected to get even bigger for the coming tournament. A record $400 million in prize money is expected to be in play next year.
That figure represents a 12 percent increase from the $358 million paid out to teams at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.