These Norwegian, United States and Costa Rican teams are among those listed on FIFA's website as current clubs of members of the Costa Rican squad, which has emerged as the 2014 World Cup's surprise package with victories over Uruguay, Italy and Greece.

This relatively obscure trio would have known they were in line to get a small share of the $70 million (£40.8 million/€51.4 million) set aside by FIFA to compensate the employers of players involved in the tournament.

But one imagines the extent of Costa Rica's progress might have left them pleasantly surprised, as it has so many other football fans.

The longer teams survive in the race for world football's biggest prize, the more their clubs stand to receive.

Under FIFA's Brazil 2014 blueprint, clubs can obtain $2,800 (£1,632/€2,059) a day for each of their players involved, with the relevant period for the purposes of payment stretching from two weeks before the opening match of the tournament until a day after elimination.

Whether a player actually appears in his country's matches is not relevant.

Ohio team Columbus Crew are likely not to have expected to receive as much money from FIFA as they will thanks to Costa Rica's cup run ©MCT via Getty Images



All clubs for which any given player has been registered in the past two years can receive a share of the FIFA payout on a pro rata basis.

In 2010, when FIFA made $40 million (£23.3 million/€29.4 million) available, Barcelona received the highest payment of $866,267 (£504,973/€637,083), with Bayern second and Chelsea third.

This time, it looks highly likely that the biggest payments will top $1 million (£582,000/€735,000).

With Costa Rica's continued involvement in the competition now assured until at least Saturday, when they face Robin van Persie's The Netherlands in Salvador, back-of-envelope arithmetic would suggest that the clubs which employ members of their squad already stand to get over $100,000 (£58,288/€73,543) per player.

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