News

The Germans may not have been overly excited at the prospect of playing us this Friday night, but their newly agreed bonus structure may have helped with motivation.

By Declan Whooley

The Irish Examiner has reported that the German Football Association General Secretary Helmut Sandrock and team captain Phillip Lahm reached an agreement for the same appearance fee as agreed for the 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign.

Each player will receive a €20,000 match appearance during the qualifying campaign with the money withheld until the final match is played. Failure to qualify for Brazil – a rather unlikely scenario we would admit – would mean all bonuses would be withheld.

“I am pleased that we have been able to reach an agreement so quickly and easily,” said DFB president Wolfgang Niersbach.

Probably not half as pleased as the players themselves.

We are not sure how Denis O’Brien…we mean the FAI compares with bonus payments, but we think Paul Green has more money in the bank than he possibly deserves.