Barcelona set for €6.9m boost to finances from FIFA despite losing court case

Barcelona have lost a dispute with Zenit St. Petersburg over the transfer of Malcom, which will force them to forego nearly half a million euros. However that will pale in comparison to the bounty coming their way from FIFA.

The Brazilian forward moved to Zenit in 2019 for Russian record fee of €41.5m and has since moved on to Al-Hilal in Saudi Arabia for €60m. However Barcelona had a clause in his contract that meant they would be paid bonuses for every time Zenit qualified for the Champions League group stage, provided he played half of the games in the Russian league.

However Zenit argued in the Court of Arbitration for Sport that their exclusion from the Champions League due to the UEFA ban on Russian teams meant they should not have to pay the Blaugrana. Their argument has been upheld by CAS, meaning Barcelona will miss out on €490k.

The positive news for Barcelona is that they will receive a little over €6.92m from FIFA in compensation for the injury to Gavi. That is according to MD, who detail that should Gavi be given the medical green light to play, then they will hit that figure in their compensation, as he was injured on international duty.

FIFA pay out a maximum of €7.5m in compensation for injuries over the course of 365 days, with clubs eligible to receive up to €20k per day of injury, if it is longer than one or two weeks. Gavi would be around a month shy of that maximum. Gavi was injured back in November while playing for Spain against Georgia last year.

Barcelona will no doubt be delighted to have Gavi back. Regardless of the financial savings that will no doubt be welcomed at Can Barca, the return of the combative midfielder is much more important. His presence alone could earn Barcelona more points both domestically and in Europe, and that alone would outstrip any gains from his injury.