Gareth calls for top spot
GARETH SOUTHGATE has demanded his england team maintain momentum and finish top of their World Cup group — even though it could put them on a collision course with superpowers Germany and Brazil. ‘For our country, trying to finish second would be a very difficult mindset to have,’ said Southgate. ‘We want to win every game we go into. I don’t know how we would go into a game not wanting to win and not wanting to play well.’ With qualification for the last 16 already secured, england face Belgium on Thursday to
GARETH SOUTHGATE has earned a bonus of only £50,000 for steering England into the last 16 of the World Cup. But as the footballing stakes get bigger in the knockout stage, so do Southgate’s double-your-money rewards, which would see him earn an extra £1.5million were England to win the World Cup.
That seemed unlikely when Southgate took the ‘impossible job’ on a full-time basis in November 2016 with a basic annual salary of around £2.5m plus a bonus scheme for World Cup progress — including £250,000 for qualifying.
Reaching the quarter-finals would bring him a further £100,000, the semi-finals £200,000, the final £400,000 and then £800,000 for the ultimate victory plus a surefire knighthood.
This may have seemed pie-in-the-sky when the England team arrived in Russia two weeks ago. But their impressive start and the way the tournament has opened up makes anything possible now.
Some FA board members wanted Southgate, as an unproven manager at senior international level, to have a break clause in his contract after the World Cup. But he proved a far tougher negotiator than many expected and his four-year contract has a larger basic salary than the FA were initially intending to offer him.
lDISGRACED
and delusional former FIFA president Sepp Blatter (below) has been strutting around Moscow during his World Cup visit as a guest of the Russian organisers insisting that he is — rather like undefeated heavyweight boxer Tyson Fury — still the main man, as he has never been beaten in a FIFA election.
SKY SpORTS NEWS at least acknowledged their freelance presenter Adam Leventhal’s criticisms of ITV Sport pundit patrice Evra on Twitter, in which he said: ‘Germany aren’t going home but patrice Evra is — every cloud . . . ’ (followed by a thumbs-up emoji). Compare that with the BBC, who continue to turn a blind eye to lead presenter Gary Lineker posting unnecessarily obscene comments about the World Cup on Twitter.
lTHE 14.1million peak viewing figure for the BBC’s England v Panama game was disappointing after the 18.3m who watched the first match against Tunisia. But they can point to a massive 82.9 per cent share of the terrestrial audience and the weather being hot, which is often trotted out as an excuse for lower-than-expected TV ratings.