Former Liverpool hero Peter Crouch has provided a fascinating insight into the massive bonus paid to players in the Champions League.
A prize fund of almost £1.71billion is in place for the next three years with each club in the competition guaranteed a minimum of £13.34m.
Each victory earned in the group stage is worth £2.36m while a draw will earn clubs £787,000. Reaching the last-16 earns each club £8.31m, the quarter-finalists pocket £9.19m and the final four bank £10.5m.
The finalists in June will each earn an additional £13.2m while the winners will receive an extra £3.5m.
The players, quite understandably, want to see a portion of this money given they are the ones who are performing on the pitch.
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And Crouch, who has experienced Champions League football with the likes of Liverpool and Tottenham , has lifted the lid on how bonuses work.
Speaking in the latest episode of That Peter Crouch Podcast , he said: “In all honesty, bonuses don’t affect a player unless you’re in the Champions League.
“When I was at Liverpool, I remember Jay Spearing, Darren Potter, Neil Mellor, Stephen Warnock was coming through… those young lads, when they got on the bench… the smile on their faces!
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“These are young lads on not much, in football terms.
“You can probably go back over it. If you see some of the reactions of the players on the bench when the team has won in the Champions League, some of the celebrations are like they’ve won it.”
Explaining how the players are incentivised, Crouch revealed they are rewarded as they progress through the tournament.
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He added: “It pretty much doubles each time. If you win a game in the group stages, it will be X - like double X!
“Then you get through to the quarters: doubled, the semis: doubled, final: doubled.”
The 38-year-old, now plying his trade with Burnley , also revealed he was never been motivated by the bonuses on offer.
“Not for one second,” he insisted. “If they gave me like a £1 and then £2 - not for one second, that has never been an incentive for me at all.
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“It’s weird because you get paid very well for it but you’d probably do it for free because it’s the best thing in the world to do anyway.
“But you get there and go ‘right, someone’s earning a fortune off of this’.
“So usually the captain will go in and say ‘you’re earning this, we’ve got us there - we think we should get this’ and negotiate bonuses.
“We usually give the captain loads of grief and say ‘that’s rubbish - go and ask for more!’.”
