Uefa will pay clubs a total of £205m for releasing players to participate in the 2024-25 and 2026-27 Nations League tournaments, as well as both qualifying and finals matches for the 2028 Euros. The majority of that fund is reserved for clubs with players released for the Euros finals, with £120m being distributed in this instance. The remaining £89m is divided among clubs who have had players participating in either the Nations League or Euros qualifiers.
Of that total, a payment of £27m is due to be released this week to clubs which had players compete in the 2024-25 Nations League. Uefa said in a statement that this will be the first payment under its Club Benefits Programme cycle. The programme means clubs are paid on a per-player, per-match basis for the Nations League tournament and Euros qualifiers, changing to per-player, per-day for the Euros tournament proper.
A similar system was in place at the 2026 World Cup. Uefa has said 611 clubs will benefit from the current cycle of payments. This will likely rise to more than 900 when including the full Euro 2028 tournament, as was the case in the 2024 competition.
The flat rate for each player named in a squad list per Nations League or Euro 2028 qualifying match is £3,285. This is a 5% increase on what clubs were paid in the 2020-24 payment cycle for the equivalent games. According to Uefa, RB Leipzig are the club set to benefit most from the 2024-25 Nations League compensation, earning £302,000 after releasing 16 players for the tournament.
While it is not possible to calculate which Premier League clubs will benefit most financially from the current international break until after all Nations League and Euro 2028 qualifiers have concluded, a rough idea can be gathered from looking at how many players each club have released for the 2026-27 Nations League (not including those out on loan): However, there is no guarantee every player called up will be named on a team sheet, which must happen in order for a payment to be made. Most Premier League clubs have additional players who have been called for international duty in tournaments outside the Nations League, which will operate a different compensation system from Uefa (if any), as well as those attending under-21s matches. And while there are obvious financial benefits to having multiple players released for international duty, many clubs sending fewer squad members will benefit from increased rest and training time for players remaining at home.
Uefa announced an equivalent compensation scheme for the women's game in 2022, in time for the 2025 Women's Euros. More than £3.7m was allocated to 221 clubs across European national associations that had released players for the tournament. Uefa states that the clubs given the financial compensation were "encouraged to use the funds for developing women's football".
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