USA Offered Record Bonus to Win World Cup

June 4th, 2010 | by: Daryl | View Comments

Remember our Which World Cup Team Wants it the Most? post from earlier this week? Well it may need rewriting. Because news broke recently that the US national team is being offered a reported $20.6m should they win the World Cup in South Africa. Split 23 ways that’s $895,131 each. Quite the persuasive little prize pot.

Of course the players will say that win bonuses have nothing to do with anything, and that they want to win the World Cup because it’s worth winning. And not just because you can melt the trophy down and sell the gold afterwards. But still. Nearly $1 million per man is a lot of money for winning seven football matches. Especially for the guys that don’t play, and double especially for an MLS player like, say, Robbie Findley, who would have to work for more than a decade on his current salary to see that much money.

The $20.6m is apparently the biggest win bonus ever offered to a World Cup team. Or at least the biggest we’ve ever heard about. The number was apparently agreed as part of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement between MLS and the Players Union. How can US Soccer afford such a sum, you might ask? Donations from wealthy soccer moms maybe? Actually US Soccer is basically offering the USA players 80% of the $31m they would receive from a World Cup win, rather than re-investing that money into the sport. Which sounds like a terrible idea, except that if the USA wins World Cup 2010 then US Soccer will be well well ahead of schedule.

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