UEFA have announced they will immediately release club benefit payments to help sides deal with financial difficulties during the COVID-19 lockdown, including Euro 2020 income.
A statement from the European Football Federation confirmed they are ready to hand over the cash sums much earlier than originally planned, as they were scheduled to be released after the European Qualifier play-offs.
UEFA have announced they will immediately release club benefit payments to help sides deal with financial difficulties during the COVID-19 lockdown, including Euro 2020 income.
A statement from the European Football Federation confirmed they are ready to hand over the cash sums much earlier than originally planned, as they were scheduled to be released after the European Qualifier play-offs.
“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:
“€50m will go to clubs having released players for the 39 national teams not involved in the European Qualifiers play-offs.
“€17.7m 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 – related to players released for the play-offs – will be distributed upon completion of these play-off matches in the autumn.
“For UEFA EURO 2020, a minimum of €200 million 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 €130m 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.”
The move was welcomed by the European Club Association (ECA), whose chairman is Juventus President Andrea Agnelli.
“This represents a much-needed liquidity injection into club finances and is a result of ECA’s joint work with UEFA on safeguarding clubs at this time of existential threat,” said Agnelli.
“Whilst public health remains our primary concern, securing financial, legal and regulatory relief in advance of restarting football across Europe, once it is safe to do so, is of paramount importance to ECA and its members.”