Liverpool had seven representatives at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, meaning they received a £1.86m fee from FIFA.
Not enough to finance the purchase of a midfielder, but that’s something.
FIFA pays teams around the world for every day their players spend in the World Cup, meaning the Reds received a small fee for those who took part in the winter spectacle.
Football’s international governing body outlined in its club benefits scheme report that Liverpool were among a number of clubs receiving compensation for their players’ performances at the World Cup.
The Reds received the fifth-highest fee package among FA-registered clubs, with three-time winners Man City collecting the highest at around £3.5m as part of the same scheme.
Of the seven Liverpool players who made the trip to the Middle East, Ibrahima Konate was most advanced in the competition before missing out on penalties against new arrival Alexis Mac Allister’s Argentina in the final.
Alisson and Fabinho both reached the quarter-finals with Brazil before being eliminated by Croatia, while Jordan Henderson and Trent Alexander-Arnold were both eliminated in the same stage by eventual runners-up England.
Virgil van Dijk captained the Netherlands, who also eliminated in the quarter-finals, while Darwin Nunez’s Uruguay did not progress through the group stage.
FIFA’s windfall at least acknowledges the impact the World Cup had on clubs during the 2022-23 season, disrupting clubs by taking six weeks off their traditional winter schedule and increasing congestion elsewhere at matches.
It was a particularly challenging season from Liverpool’s perspective, having already played every possible game in 2021/22, and one that saw Jurgen Klopp’s side drop out of the Champions League for the first time since 2016.
The £1.86m figure in no way reflects the carnage caused by the tournament schedule, but it is perhaps a bigger helping hand than we would expect from a normally incompetent governing body at all respects!
