Slovakia won't be at the World Cup, but our clubs will still profit. FIFA to send thousands of euros to the league

Each national team could register a maximum of 26 players for the tournament roster, including three goalkeepers. The minimum for each squad is 23 names, which accounts for over 1100 footballers; the maximum can be up to 1248.

Out of this number, only two representatives are from Slovakia. The Slovak national team failed to qualify for the final tournament, having lost to Kosovo in the playoff semi-finals. Had they made it to the championship, the number of representatives from the Slovak top flight could have been higher.

Only 28-year-old defender César Blackman from Panama, playing for ŠK Slovan Bratislava, and 25-year-old French-born Haitian international Dominique Simon, who was on loan at Tatran Prešov during the 2025/2026 season, made it into the squads.

This short list concludes the active players. The World Cup will also feature former Slovak national team goalkeeper Matúš Kozáčik, 42, who serves as a goalkeeping coach for the Czech national team.

Former DAC Dunajská Streda defender Eric Davis will also play at the 'Mundial,' joining Blackman in the Panama squad. In the past, Czech Robin Hranáč played in Slovakia for Liptovský Mikuláš, and Democratic Republic of Congo defender Steve Kapuadi played for Trenčín from 2020 to 2022.

Every club is entitled to compensation for releasing players for their national team's World Cup duties. The FIFA Club Benefits Programme for the 2026 World Cup has allocated a record package of approximately 355 million dollars, which translates to roughly 308 million euros. The aim is to reward teams that lose their players for several weeks during the tournament.

Money is distributed based on the number of days a player spends at the tournament. A team receives several thousand dollars for each day a player is part of the World Cup, including pre-tournament preparation. In practice, a club can earn approximately 110,000 dollars (around 95,436 euros) to 250,000 dollars (approximately 216,900 euros) per player, depending on how far their national team progresses.

For Slovak clubs, this represents a supplementary, yet still significant, income. Most teams worldwide typically have a maximum of one or two players at the World Cup, so their earnings are in the lower hundreds of thousands of euros.

Slovan Bratislava and Tatran Prešov should therefore receive around 90,000 to 100,000 euros for the group stage, regardless of their players' minutes on the field. If Blackman's and Simon's teams advance to the knockout stage, the amount will increase.

Paradoxically, even though Simon is only on loan at 'koňari' (Tatran Prešov), FIFA's rules have loopholes, and financial compensation will only go to the club where the player is currently registered – not Czech Pardubice.

The longer the national teams of Panama and Haiti remain in the World Cup, the more money Slovak teams will receive. FIFA does not pay compensation based on the number of matches, but on the number of days a footballer spends at the 'Mundial.'