It is reported today that there may be a dispute between the members of the Irish squad that qualified for Euro 2012 and the FAI over bonuses for reaching the tournament.
This morning’s Sunday Times reports that Giovanni Trapattoni admitted to reporters in Waterford on Friday that players are in talks with the FAI regarding payments for making it to Polkraine.
The paper reports that Robbie Keane, and possibly one other player, met with an FAI official in Birmingham last week to discuss the issue.
The paper estimates that a fund of €350,000 is being made available to the players to split between them but the FAI refused to confirm or deny that figure.
The last time we made it to a tournament, the 2002 World Cup, each player pocketed €70,000 for qualifying but if the figure above is correct then the current squad will receive far less this time, even if they played in all 12 games it took to reach the Euros.
With the FAI set to trouser a minimum of €8million for attending the tournament, the players may feel they deserve a little more of a cut than under 5 per cent of that.
The paper quotes a source close to the players who says: “The players keep seeing the figure of €8m from Uefa and they are being offered a fraction of that. However, they know what the climate is like and they don’t want to be seen as being greedy.”
It is believed, according to the paper, that the matter will be discussed again in the run up to the Czech Republic game at the end of the month.
Let’s hope it can be resolved quickly as the last thing we need is an issue like this appearing in the run up to our first tournament in a decade.
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