BURNLEY TO HAND STARS £8M BONUS FOR SURVIVAL

BURNLEY’S players are set to receive a huge windfall for staying in the Premier League with at least £8.5 million being divided among Sean Dyche’s team.

In one of the top-flight’s biggest bonus schemes, those who have played most frequently are in line for about £650 000 each as reward for pulling off survival.

These pay-outs are all the more substantial considering Burnley’s modest wage structure, which sees January buy Robbie Brady as top earner on £35000 per week. Some players are poised to receive five months salary in one go.

Burnley have one of the lowest annual wage bills in the Premier League – about £33m – as the club’s hierarchy are conscious of living within their means.

But in turn the players will be rewarded handsomely for securing another season in the top flight, earning a generous slice of the TV money that staying in the Premier League will bring.

In terms agreed before the current season, it is understood that a pot of £8.5m will be shared out in the event of Burnley finishing 17th. Each place higher up is worth an incremental amount. Burnley sit in 14th position at present, which equates to approximately £9m.

The pool is then divided among the squad in recognition of contributions made throughout the course of the campaign.

Using a points system, each start is worth more than an appearance off the bench, for example. It is estimated that those players featuring in every match will earn upwards of £650000 depending on the final finishing position.

Burnley’s is particularly generous when considering Leicester’s title-winners shared £6.5m last season for finishing above 12th.

But Burnley have been able to offer a greater figure because weekly wages are kept to a strict structure.

Leicester, Stoke and Watford in the immediate places above, and West Ham, Crystal Palace, Swansea and Sunderland below all have much larger annual salary bills, so Dyche’s achievement in keeping Burnley up is especially impressive and the subsequent windfall to players arguably more deserved. – Daily Mail