National team players to benefit from Fifa insurance

Players on official national team duty with their senior sides will have their salaries insured against injury after FIFA set aside $100 million for that purpose.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter said Friday that the worldwide policy should take effect on September 1, and will cover all matches played on FIFA international calendar dates.

"The Executive fully supported a major innovation, namely worldwide player insurance on behalf of member associations. In short, this means that, starting in August 2012, FIFA will insure all players involved in all “A” national team games listed in the international match calendar worldwide. This proposal will now be submitted to the upcoming FIFA Congress for approval. The provisional budget for this project amounts to USD 100 million."

The move will satisfy clubs who have long campaigned for help to pay the salaries of their injured international players.

Blatter acknowledged that the insurance scheme was overdue.

“Perhaps we should have done so a long time ago,” he said at a news conference. “It's to the benefit of everyone from Djibouti to Italy.”

FIFA took the decision at it's two-day executive meeting.