Chelsea Club World Cup prize money already confirmed as huge £97m deal explained

Chelsea have already banked £9.9million just for kicking off their Club World Cup campaign in America. That is two-thirds of what they got for winning the Conference League.

Finishing fourth in the Premier League, and ensuring Champions League qualification, was worth around £14million on its own as well. Being at the top table of world football is a lucrative business, and FIFA have tried to make their revamped competition the main attraction.

There is still some way to go to achieve that, and their goal of going beyond the prize money for Champions League winners has failed, but being in the Club World Cup is a massive financial boost for Chelsea. They are there not on any current merit, but thanks to Thomas Tuchel’s 2021 side which won the Champions League.

It is essentially a gift from the Roman Abramovich era to Clearlake Capital-Todd Boehly, who will reap the rewards of this tournament at a time when it is needed and appreciated. Ahead of the summer window, the cash injection will be welcomed after Chelsea went most of last season without a front-of-shirt sponsor.

They also do not have one for the Club World Cup, but the money on offer here will more than make up for that. Chelsea know that even if they are the lowest ranked team in Europe come the end of the Club World Cup, they will get £9.9million, with the potential for that to rise to £29.6million.

In total, there is a £775million pool of money to be shared among the 32-teams, which includes part-timers Auckland City FC – who were smashed 10-0 by Bayern Munich in the second game. There is £4.5million to be won in the group stage if Chelsea can complete a clean sweep over Los Angeles FC (LAFC), ES Tunis, and Flamengo.

For reaching the last-16, which Chelsea are heavily expected to do, there is an extra £5.8million on offer. Sterner tasks would await in the quarter-finals as big name European sides likely get whittled down, but £10.1million is also up for grabs for getting there.

The semi-finals would earn Chelsea another £16.2million at minimum. Losing finalists get £23.2million with £30million there for the overall winners.

This is a huge amount and does not include the additional commercial benefits. Broadcasters DAZN bought the rights for the tournament for £1billion.

With Chelsea looking to spend big this summer in order to improve Enzo Maresca’s squad, the Club World Cup provides a chance to partially offset any spending. They have already signed Liam Delap for £30million from Ipswich Town.

Two bids, worth £29million and £42million, have been made for Borussia Dortmund’s Jamie Gittens as well. Meanwhile, Chelsea continue to monitor the situation of Hugo Ekitike at Eintracht Frankfurt, although his £84.5million asking price is currently proving to be far too much.

Chelsea could make changes elsewhere with Marc Guehi among the centre-back targets. Alejandro Garnacho and Mike Maignan are just two others of interest.

Speaking ahead of the opener against LAFC, Maresca said: “We’ve only had ten days [off]. Some of the players also had international duty. The feeling when we returned was a bit like pre-season.

“We had some new players. The main message, though, was, ‘Guys, this is not pre-season. It’s a big tournament’.” He added: “In the Conference League, for every other team facing us was their game of the season. It might be there same here.”