England stars eye staggering Euro prize money
LONDON — It won’t be at the forefront of their minds following their recent dramatic win, but England’s triumph over Denmark earned the players a substantial amount of money.
Simon Kjaer’s own goal and Harry Kane’s rebound from a penalty in extra-time saw England come from a goal behind on Wednesday to win 2-1 and book a place in the Euro 2020 final on Sunday.
Having gone behind after Mikkel Damsgaard’s thunderbolt free-kick in the 30th minute, it was some comeback from Gareth Southgate’s side, who will now face Italy at Wembley for the chance to win a first major trophy for 55 years.
Reflecting on the performance against Denmark, the party atmosphere provided by 64 950 raucous fans inside the national stadium and the challenge posed by Italy is all England will be doing right now.
But it would also be remiss to overlook the financial benefits that their fantastic performance will provide for the squad.
International football is, of course, not about the money. The players earn enough from club football to play for Southgate’s side out of pride and ambition.
England’s players are paid £ 2 000 for every international game — a sum which they have traditionally donated to the England Footballers Foundation.
Yet a major tournament like the European Championship does offer an extra incentive to bring football home.
Just participating earns the squad around £8 million, while qualification from Group D added a further £3,44 million to the kitty.
The impressive 2-0 win over Germany in the last 16 and 4-0 thrashing of Ukraine in the quarter-final added another £5,6 million, taking the collective earnings to around £17 million before the Denmark game.
Wednesday’s win over the Danes has assured a minimum additional payment of £4,3 million, paid to the tournament’s runners-up, or the main payment of £6,9 million which goes to Sunday’s winners.
Overall, that means that if England beat Italy this weekend they will share almost £24 million (€27.75 million) between them.
It is understood that the players take a 40% cut of those winnings in bonuses, meaning a pot of around £9,5 million will be shared out among the 26-man squad.
So, if they beat Roberto Mancini’s side, the players will be eligible for around £370 000 as well as their winners’ medals.
In the grand scheme of things, in the age of astronomical Premier League wages, that figure is not a huge deal for the players, but the money will be significant for the Football Association.
The FA will scoop 60%of the final total, which is a timely boost considering the governing body is forecast to lose around £300 million by 2024 in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
The windfall would have been even greater, had it not been for the pandemic.
UEFA were originally ready to hand out a total of £319 million in prize money to the 24 participating teams but dropped the amount to £285 million in May.
However, the lower figure is still an increase from the last European Championship in 2016, which had a prize pot of £259 million.
— The Mirror