More than 65% of Borussia Dortmund’s £57.9m transfer business so far this summer has been paid off from their participation in the United States after they reached the quarter-final stage.
The £27m Dortmund paid to Sunderland for Jobe Bellingham has already been completely paid off.
Chelsea have spent £198m on reinforcements so far this summer on the likes of Joao Pedro and Liam Delap – £84m of that has been covered by their impressive run at the Club World Cup.
Despite Manchester City’s surprise last-16 exit to Al-Hilal, they still earned around £38m from the tournament – which equates to 35% of the summer business they have conducted so far.
In more simple terms, it has paid for their £31m acquisition of Rayan Ait-Nouri from Wolves.
Real Madrid paid Liverpool a fee of around £8.4m for Trent Alexander-Arnold to get him a month early to be part of their squad for the competition – that was paid off after just three matches.
“It’s welcome for the accountants at football clubs. The business will be happy,” said finance expert Maguire about the competition’s lucrative incentives.
“But I’m not sure fans will be happy, particularly of European clubs, and it’ll be the same for players and managers.
“We’re reaching a crisis point as far as player welfare is concerned. We could be entering a period of conflict between players and owners.”
