World Cup winners will net £19million reward

Published on Thursday 3 December 2009 22:05

GLOBAL recession? What global recession? No-one, it seems, has told Fifa. The announcement by world football's governing body that the 2010 World Cup winners will pick up a cheque for nearly £19million represents a huge increase of 50 per cent.

The decision was announced on the eve of today's World Cup draw after Fifa's 24-man executive committee met on Robben Island, the former prison island where Nelson Mandela was held for 18 years under the apartheid regime. Fifa president Sepp Blatter and secretary general Jerome Valcke addressed 250 journalists taken by ferry from Cape Town to Robben Island, where the figures were made public in the stone-floored former prison hall.

Valcke said the total prize money available to the 32 finalists in South Africa next summer would be $420m, which amounts to 254m at current exchange rates and is an increase of 60 per cent from the 158m handed out at the 2006 tournament in Germany.

All participating teams will receive $1m to cover preparation costs, with the winners collecting an additional $30m. It amounts to 18.7m in total for whoever lifts the famous trophy at Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg on 11 July 2010.

With the $1m allocated for costs included, the runners-up nest year will take home 15m overall and the losing semi-finalists 12.7m. The teams knocked out in the last eight will net 11.5m, the second-round losers 6m and the countries eliminated at the group stage will receive 5.4m.

Valcke said Fifa would also be dishing out 24m to the clubs whose players take part in the tournament. "Every club who has a player at the World Cup will receive $1,600 per day, per player," he explained. "The money will be paid 15 days before the start of the tournament and to one day after the players' participation in the World Cup ends."

The money will be paid to clubs through national associations, and, as part of the package that has been agreed, clubs have agreed not to pursue claims for any possible compensation through civil courts but only through Fifa or CAS, the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

In a series of announcements made in pomp and ceremony, Fifa also rejected calls to restrict the men's football tournament at the 2012 London Olympics to players 21 and under, and will stick with the under-23 format, with three overage players.

Uefa had pressed for the change to ensure top players stay with their clubs during pre-season training. But the current format is popular with the International Olympic Committee because it allows teams to select some of the game's biggest names to play for the gold medal.

At the last Olympic Games in Beijing, the then 28-year-old Ronaldinho played for Brazil, 30-year-old Juan Roman Riquelme represented Argentina and 33-year-old Roy Makaay turned out for the Netherlands.

"We have decided to keep the structure as happened before in 2008, that is an age limit of 23 plus three overage players," Valcke said. "There will be a meeting in Zurich in February to decide the period beyond 2012, but for the moment things will stay as they are."

The suspension of Iraq from international football because of government interference in the running of the sport was ratified, and in recognition of the rise and spread of the women's game across the globe, the Women's World Cup will be expanded from 16 teams from 24 in 2015, although no venue has yet been decided.

There will be more of the same today. The ten candidates vying to host the World Cup in 2018 or 2022 will be officially introduced in Cape Town. Before the start of the main event, a glittering draw ceremony to decide the groups for the forthcoming finals, the bid teams for the next two World Cups will screen a four-minute promotional film at a Western Cape government residence. Then they will make their opening pitches of a year-long process that won't conclude until a vote by Fifa's executive committee in Zurich in December 2010.

Fifa has never opted to award two tournaments in one swoop, nor has it ever attracted such a deep and diverse field of contenders.

It will count on two of them to deliver an event that commanded a total television audience of 26 billion viewers in 2006, and will earn Fifa about 2.3 billion from television and commercial rights this time round.

Campaigning began as soon as entries were declared at the start of the year. England, Australia, Japan, Russia and the United States, plus joint bids from Spain-Portugal and Belgium-Netherlands are chasing either tournament. Indonesia, Qatar and South Korea will concentrate on 2022, believing Europe is favoured for 2018.

Bidders arrived in Cape Town attempting to perform a tough balancing act in trying to attract attention without upstaging the main event. "Our job is to be low-key and respectful of our South African hosts," said Harry Been, chief executive of the Belgium-Netherlands bid.

Fifa says publicly that an ideal host must give as well as receive, and leave a lasting legacy to the football world.

The reality is that money talks.