Fifa gave millions of dollars to the Colombian Football Federation, despite not having qualified for the World Cup

Within the framework of the International Association Football Federation congress in Doha, Qatar, the award of $8 million was announced to each member federation, which did not qualify for the World Cup, which will take place from November 21 to December 18 of this year.

The “bonus” is given because of the positive results that FIFA has had in recent years, thus benefiting the national teams financially, which helps to alleviate “losses” because it did not qualify for the most important football tournament in the world cup.

In the budget of the Colombian Football Federation, 10 million dollars was “secured”, which was given to all the national teams, just for participating in the group stage. That added to the 2 million that was earned by simply qualifying for the world cup.

Official figures assure that the teams will receive an additional $12 million for playing the round of 16, 18 million for the quarter-finals; the team that finishes in fourth place will win 25 million, the third 30 million, the runner-up 40 million and the champion 50 million dollars. There are almost 1 billion that will be distributed among the 32 countries classified, 29% more than what was distributed in the past world cup, Russia 2018.

The announcement gives a break to Ramón Jesurum, president of the Colombian Football Federation, and the board of directors of this body, who in recent days were being identified as one of those responsible for the failure of the Colombian National Football Team, in the last round.

It was rumored that some of the major clubs in the country were not supporting them or even looking for other candidates for these managerial positions, but, coincidentally, two weeks ago they were ratified for another 4 years, almost unanimously, only Emilio Gutiérrez, president of Atlético Nacional, voted against it.

It is striking that the re-election of the directors takes place while the investigations are being carried out, by the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce, into the scandal of the resale of ballots for the qualifying round of the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Ramón Jesurum, Elkin Arce and Álvaro González were financially sanctioned by SIC, amounting to 16 billion pesos.

The money given by FIFA will undoubtedly alleviate the economic impact of not qualifying for the world cup, since it had become customary for the FCF to receive this income, having qualified for the last two editions, in 2014 and 2018.

Even, it seems that the one who won the most from this visit to Qatar was President Jesurum, who was appointed as the principal member of the FIFA World Council, which is the most important institution of the highest body of world football.

The Colombian Football Federation is not the only one that lost money, although they helped it, the national trade also calculated the economic losses due to the fact that the national team will not compete in the world cup. According to a report by the National Federation of Merchants, Fenalco, the country's economy will be affected in the sale of sporting goods, liquor and technology, losing more than 5 billion pesos that could have entered in November and December of this year.

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