Newcastle United are set to receive a financial windfall in excess of £250,000 thanks to Aleksandar Mitrovic and Florian Thauvin being part of their respective World Cup squads, according to the Chronicle.
The report states that the Magpies will be handed funds by FIFA as a result of the club benefits scheme, which sees the governing body pay sides for allowing their players to feature at the competition, this year in Russia.
It is stated that Mitrovic’s inclusion for Serbia will pick up Newcastle £182,116, while Thauvin, who left Tyneside last summer for Marseille, will be a surprise benefactor, who could see the north east club pick up an extra £101,898 as they collect a third of the total that will be paid out for his appearance in France’s 23-man squad.
Opinion
While £250,000 is very little in terms of today’s money in football, it still will go some way to helping the club run smoothly with its finances. What Newcastle would have really been hoping for is for Mitrovic to have taken the competition by storm, netting goals left, right and centre and adding another couple of million onto the price tag slapped on his head, with an exit seeming inevitable. If that is the sort of money Newcastle are picking up for having one-and-a-third of a player out in Russia, the boost that big clubs such as Liverpool and Manchester United must be getting is phenomenal, and only goes to further the gap at the top of not only the Premier League but every major club division across Europe. Newcastle, along with many other of the mid-table sides, have no chance of competing if such handouts are going the way of the giants.