For Pride of Country, Love of Money
Lifting the trophy on July 9 is the main incentive for most players in the World Cup, but it isn’t the only one. Both big teams and minnows are handing out bonuses to their players as a way to reward and inspire greatness. Which country’s players have the most to gain financially from a World Cup championship?
Spain heads the list with each player promised a cool 570,000 Euros for bringing home the country’s first World Cup. This seems only right because Spain’s players are staying in the cheapest hotel rooms of any team in the tournament.
Some other teams that will be heading to the bank after a World Cup title include:
South Korea - $US526,000
England - 430,000 Euros/player
Switzerland - 350,000 Euros
Germany - 300,000 Euros
Poland – Roughly 300,000 Euros
Portugal – 275,000 Euros
Italy – 250,000 Euros
Brazil’s players will also be treated royally with Nike throwing $6 million towards the football federation for a sixth World Cup.
The incentives are more creative for some teams. Iran’s players are each earning 50,000 Euros for playing in Germany and they get a new car. A Pugeot, no less.
Saudi Arabia’s players are not being offered cash but they might be rewarded with houses and land. When your country sits on that much oil, land can be a very generous reward.
Ukraine’s players can actually sleep with their loved ones if they make the semifinals. If they lose in the first round they can also sleep with their loved ones. Not sure if that qualifies as an incentive or not.
The players from Togo have managed to do a fine job extorting their federation to the tune of 120,000 Euros a man just for competing in the finals, plus 30,000 euros per victory and half that amount for defeat. That should go a long, long way back home in Togo.
Finally there is my much beloved Angola which will break the bank by paying each player $5,000 per goal. As if that weren’t enough, the players have also received a cell phone with 1,000 free roaming minutes so that they can describe their goals in great detail to everyone back home.
My boss Sean has offered me a bit of an incentive as well. If I manage to LiveBlog all 64 matches, he won’t cut off my hands. Little does he know that I usually type with my toes anyway.
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Comments
By malik | June 5th, 2006 at 6:59 pm 
wow….angola is giving theyre players 5 thousand and a cell phone per goal?!?!?! LOL….and then theres UKRAINE….i have yet to visit that country, but if sex is the most important thing there, than……”see ya later, gotta go”
Posted from 
United States
By JohnGalt | June 5th, 2006 at 10:24 pm Czech Republic at around 30 to 1 is an excellent long shot bet to win the 2006 World Cup. The Czech team has experience, speed, and tremendous team coordination. They can compete with the strongest teams and with some good fortune, have a reasonably good shot to win it all. Certainly, the odds offered make a bet on the Czechs an irresistible investment.
By MasterS | June 6th, 2006 at 1:15 am Croatia is the team to beat, you never know what will happen, but they will first of all beat brazil because they play the best against the strongest teams and then in final with a littlbe bit of fortuna they are going all the way
Posted from 
Canada
By Raheel | June 6th, 2006 at 2:12 pm This is the age of globalisation and Capitalism . While Sponsors are vital for the staging of such grand tournaments , commercialisation of the Beautiful Game has its downside too . I recall Team Nigeria turning out for their quater-final clash against Sweden in the 1998 World Cup on the back of fierce squabbling with the Nigerian FA over monetary incentives for their impressive performances earlier in the tournament. I am also haunted by the Zombie-style performance of Ronaldo in the final against France in the same edition of the World Cup( a possible explanation being that Ronaldo was unfit to play but was forced to do so due to the threats made by the Nike Representatives to take back Sponsorship money paid to the Brazilian FA) . I am all in favour of rewards for players who produce outstanding feats of skill and finesse and help bring glory to their teams and countries , but the heart and soul of of the game must be protected against the ravages of crass commercialism.
Posted from 
India
By Germany Cup | June 6th, 2006 at 11:35 pm OGM.
Is this sport or business?
Posted from 
Latvia
By w o r d s » Blog Archive » Togo’s players earn respect back | June 14th, 2006 at 4:53 am [...] It makes me mad when the media discuss the premiums of the players for Togo and they point to the average per-capita income for Togo as a comparison for the 155,000 Euro premiums promised to the players. That is such bogus. Most Togolese players live and work in Europe, and in that context that is not such an outrageous premium. Some of the other teams pay a lot more than that. Also, the FIFA contributes at least 4.5 Million Euros to every team in the finals. And the Gnassingé clan, who runs Togo, is worth Billions of Dollars. [...]
Posted from United States
By Good Day Mate | June 23rd, 2006 at 3:32 pm So it is true that every team gets a 1.5 million from FIFA for every game played in the World Cup? Total coming out to 4.5 million if you get bounced during the first stage.
Posted from United States
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