Andre Villas Boas has warned his former club Chelsea that the prize money for the FIFA Club World Cup is 'below initial expectations.'
The Blues and Manchester City will be representing England in that tournament held in the United States after the season finishes. Chelsea and City have qualified for the Club World Cup by virtue of winning the Champions League over the course of the last four years.
The two teams have previously been involved in the Club World Cup but the tournament, which consisted of just eight teams, was hosted in December. This time around, the competition has been moved to the end of the season and will involve 32 clubs from across the globe.
As a result, player welfare has been highlighted as one issue with the effectively being no break. Should Chelsea reach the final, they will be playing until July 13 with the Premier League season then set to start on August 16.
Fifa has urged clubs to field their strongest line-ups for the tournament and have allowed participating clubs to open their transfer window from June 1 for four days before the tournament begins on June 10. This decision was made to allow clubs to sign new players to play in the tournament.
Speaking at an event on Friday, Villas Boas who is now the president of FC Porto has revealed that negotiations over the prize money remain ongoing. "The European Club Association is still in discussions with FIFA to better allocate the amount to the European clubs, so it is estimated that the share will be between €16 million and €20m (£13.2m and £16.5m), and then it will obviously increase depending on the club’s performance," he said.
"Well below initial expectations, which is always important for FC Porto, particularly as we missed out on the Champions League this year, which is an important amount in any case but I can also say from the bottom of my heart that we are very pleased to be in this competition.
"Porto has twice won the other competition, the Continental Cup, so to speak, and this is the first time in this format, so we are very pleased and very proud to be present and we want to honour the club’s credentials in this competition."
Chelsea were drawn in Group D against Club Leon, Flamengo and Esperance Tunis.
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