In a thrilling extra-time match, South Korea squeezed past Uruguay to reach the last 16, leaving Uruguay's players devastated and South Korea's cheering. Meanwhile, the Chinese soccer world is looking forward to the glorious victory of their East Asian neighbors, expecting an epic victory "red envelope rain".
Two clubs, Shandong Luneng and Beijing Guoan, have benefited from South Korea's advancement to the World Cup, and each is expected to increase its income by tens of thousands of dollars. The two clubs are expected to increase their income by tens of thousands of dollars each as a result of the World Cup, and FIFA's dividend program follows the principle of "all for one and one for all". Under the program, FIFA will pay compensation to the clubs of the players involved in the World Cup as a reward for the clubs' support of the World Cup and FIFA.
There are usually 26 players in each of the 32 participating teams. World Cup dividend payments begin seven days before the tournament and end the day after a team withdraws. The dividend is approximately $10,000 per day per player. For the team that wins the championship, their dividend is approximately 37 days long, including 7 days of preparation before the game, 29 days on game day, and a final withdrawal day. This results in a dividend of approximately $370,000 for the champion players. In order to gain the widest possible support, FIFA has also made it a point to specify that the clubs entitled to the dividend include all players from clubs that have signed up in the two years prior to the World Cup.
In the Chinese Super League, for example, Shandong Luneng was the first to benefit from South Korea's victory last night. Since Son Junho's transfer from Jeonbuk Hyundai to Shandong Luneng in January 2021, his World Cup bonus will mainly go to Luneng. Considering that South Korea's chances of winning against Brazil on Dec. 5 are not high, the South Korean international's bonus days will theoretically be seven plus 1,724 days. Shandong Luneng is expected to receive about $240,000 from Son Junho's dividend.
Beijing Guoan has also benefited. Guoan have made a fortune on South Korean center back Kim Min-Ja and will get a share of the World Cup compensation. Kim Min-jae has been with Guoan since January 2019, before moving to Turkey's Fenerbahce in August 2021, and then to Napoli in July 2022 in Serie A. During the two-year transfer window period leading up to the World Cup, he was contractually linked to three clubs, sharing $240,000 in revenue in proportion to the time spent in the window. Based on the percentage of time spent at the last World Cup, the potential compensation for Nacional should be around $80,000 dollars.
The same "red envelope rain" has also been showered on two other Chinese Super League clubs. Despite Cameroon's victory over Brazil last night, striker Bassogo regretted that his team failed to qualify from the group stage. However, he will also bring in about $210,000 in compensatory income for the Super League. Basogo moved from Henan Songshan Longmen FC to Shanghai Shenhua in February 2021, and according to the principle of proportional distribution in the FIFA window, Shenhua will receive about $180,000 to $190,000 in compensation, while Henan will receive $20,000 to $30,000 in "pocket money". As for Basogo and Shenhua's annual salary situation, this money may be used to solve some of the problem of salary arrears.
Two key center backs from Australia and Iran will also bring in compensation revenue for Super League clubs. Australian center back Mooy moved to Shanghai in August 2020 and to Celtic of Scotland in January 2022; Iran's Praliganji is on a similar time trajectory to Mooy. He moved to Shenzhen in August 2020 and to Persepolis, Iran in January of this year. Initial calculations show that Moui brought about $130,000 in compensation to Shanghai; Praliganji will pay out about $100,000 in compensation bonuses to Shenzhen.
There are also seven Chinese Super League veterans who participated in the Qatar World Cup, such as Jin Yingquan, Hammad and Olsic. They were not associated with the Chinese Super League during the two-year window prior to this World Cup, and therefore the Chinese Super League is not able to compensate dividends. Overall, six Chinese clubs will be able to receive compensatory dividends for this World Cup, with Shandong Luneng earning the most. However, there is still a big gap between their income and that of Guangzhou Evergrande, the "dividend champion" of the Chinese Super League in the last World Cup. According to the data released by FIFA, a total of 11 Chinese clubs received compensation income from the last World Cup, of which Guangzhou Evergrande topped the list with $353,750. Four years later, those former champion clubs are declining like a spring, the ups and downs of Chinese soccer are lamentable.
