Ivory Coast president promises to double World Cup bonuses

June 23, 2014 08:42 pm | Updated 08:42 pm IST - ABIDJAN

Alassane Ouattara.

Alassane Ouattara.

Ivory Coast president Alassane Ouattara has told his country's footballers he will double their World Cup win bonuses if they beat Greece.

The Elephants can guarantee their place in the knock-out stages with a victory over the 2004 European champions in Fortaleza on Tuesday.

Currently they are due 16 million CFA francs ($24,400) per player for a victory but that will double to 32 million CFA francs in case of success against Greece, an official source said.

The source added that the initiative was aimed at "giving the Elephants extra motivation" to reach the knock-out rounds for the first time in their history.

They are currently second in Group C on three points after a 2-1 victory over Japan was followed by a defeat to Colombia by the same score.

A draw would definitely be enough for them to progress as long as Japan don't beat Colombia in their final game. A defeat would see Ivory Coast eliminated.

While such a sum may not make much difference to the likes of Manchester City's Yaya Toure or Galatasaray's Didier Drogba, both of whom earn considerably more than that every week at their clubs, it would certainly be welcomed by reserve goalkeeper Sylvain Gbohouo, the only member of Ivory Coast's squad still plying his trade in his homeland.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.