West Ham could receive a financial boost from midfielder, an expert has revealed.
The saying every little helps can mean very different things depending on the context. To the average person, it can be saving 5p, but to football clubs ‘little’ can be an astronomical amount of money. That being said, the saying still certainly runs true and West Ham may receive a financial boost which could end up being significant for their window.
Ahead of the Copa America, rumours had started to emerge about Edson Alvarez moving to Manchester United to replace Casemiro. However, these rumours were abruptly put to a stop when the midfielder went down with a hamstring injury which could see him miss a large chunk of preseason.
While this is absolutely horrific for him as he will now miss the rest of the competition, it’s also far from ideal for Julen Lopetegui who will be trying to embed his style of play into the players. Fortunately, there is a silver lining to this as football finance expert Adam Williams has revealed that West Ham will be entitled to compensation thanks to being apart of the European Club Association.
“I think this scheme illustrates the merits of the European Club Association. The organisation has taken some flack recently, a lot of it deserved, in my opinion,” Williams explained to Hammers News.
“Its membership has soared by hundreds of clubs since the Super League, but only a fraction of those have meaningful voting rights. And its blind support of UEFA in terms of its PSR rules is questionable too. But in lobbying for clubs like West Ham to get protection in the event of injuries like the one to Alvarez, it’s a highly effective pressure group.”
“FIFA also pay around £7,000 per player for every day they are away on international duty. That might not sound like a lot, but if you have three or four players who go deep into a tournament, it can easily add up to a seven-figure sum.”
“We don’t know the severity of Alvarez’s injury, but he’s one of the biggest earners at West Ham. Even if only a month’s wages are covered, that’s £400,000, which isn’t to be sniffed at.”
This is on top of the FIFA Club Protection programme money they will be looking to claim. With PSR in place, you can’t afford to go over budget by a penny and this could allow the Hammers to potentially have that little bit extra to spend to push a deal over the line.
Hopefully he isn’t out for too long, but it’s nice knowing that the Hammers will get compensated for losing one of their most important players due to him getting injured in a game that they had nothing to do with.