England Manager Gareth Southgate will receive a £250,000 ($328,165) bonus after England booked its World Cup place "by beating Slovenia at Wembley" on Thursday, according to Matt Hughes of the LONDON TIMES. Southgate agreed to "a series of bonus payments with the FA in addition to his salary when accepting the job last year." The first of which has kicked in. Southgate’s basic salary is £3M ($3.9M) but, with the FA’s performance incentives, "that could rise" to more than £4M ($5.25M) next year if England has a "successful" World Cup. In addition to the £250,000 payout for qualifying for the finals, Southgate will receive another £250,000 if England makes it out of its group in Russia, "while further bonuses are available for every round of the knockout stage that his side negotiate." He signed a four-year contract as England manager in November on the same salary as his predecessor, Sam Allardyce, although that was £500,000 ($656,330) "less than the basic pay given to the man who preceded him at Wembley, Roy Hodgson." Southgate’s "earning power has increased considerably" since he was the U21 manager on a salary of £500,000 12 months ago, but he "insists that his new job has not changed him." He said, "My life hasn't changed really. What I do notice is the impact of anything I say or do carries increased weight because of the responsibility of the position, but that's not anything I didn't expect." A leading U.K. employment lawyer questioned whether Allardyce "can make a tribunal claim against the FA" and said that any chance of legal action against the organization that sacked him "would be through the civil courts" (LONDON TIMES, 10/5).
