England’s World Cup bonus row ignited after stars requested £100,000 each if they won the tournament

The player bonus row that rocked preparations for England’s Women’s World Cup ignited after players demanded £100,000 each if they won the tournament, sources have told Mail Sport.

The Lionesses each received a £55,000 bonus from the FA for winning last summer’s European Championship and they felt an upgrade would be appropriate if they were to lift the biggest title in the world.

They will resume talks on bonuses after the final, but it is believed some are considering scaling back the commercial work they do (currently free) for the FA if the matter is not satisfactorily resolved.

The England men’s team would have raised £500,000 each if they had won the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. As for the women, the FA arguably found the women asking for just 20 percent of the male figure was too much. So much for equality.

When In The Money asked the FA to confirm that the women had asked for £100,000 each for winning this World Cup, they said they could not comment out of respect for their players.

When asked about the situation on Friday, FA CEO Mark Bullingham said the row would be resolved “after the tournament”.

He added: “They had a very strong case before the World Cup and a very strong case after, but the reality is that there needs to be a discussion.”

In a statement last month, England captain Millie Bright and her teammates said: “We are disappointed that a solution has still not been reached. We see the successful completion of these discussions, through player input and a transparent long-term plan, as key to the growth of women’s football in England.”

The FA decided to scrap their women’s bonuses because the FIFA world governing body has increased prize money at the current World Cup, not only for participating associations, but also for direct payments to the players.

If England win today, the FA will collect $4.29 million (£3.4 million) from FIFA and each of the players will earn $270,000 (£212,000). The Football Association of the team that finishes second will receive £2.4 million and the second-place players will receive £153,000 each.

FIFA introduced a sliding scale of bonuses, so that even the FAs of the teams eliminated in the group stage pocketed £1.23 million, while the players who left in that stage received £23,600 each.

The participating associations receive more money than ever before at a World Cup for women, on top of payments to players. Yet the English FA clearly felt that none of their money should go to their players. Other leading national associations, including Spain, the US and host Australia, pay bonuses on top of FIFA’s payments.

Chelsea’s latest shirt sponsorship deal in limbo

Chelsea will not reimburse fans who buy the club’s new plain shirts if the club lands a lucrative front-of-the-shirt deal.

Todd Boehly’s club have so far been unable to confirm a deal to replace the £40 million-a-year deal with Three that expired last season.

They are the first ‘Big Six’ club to start a Premier League season without a sponsor.

A potential £40 million a year deal with Infinite Athlete appears to be in limbo as the Premier League do their due diligence on the proposal under their ‘fair market value’ rules.

Doubts remain as to whether the Infinite deal will be greenlit. The brand was founded just a week before the potential Chelsea deal was announced and sales are estimated to be just over £12 million a year. Infinite is also suspected to have financial ties to Chelsea’s ownership group, albeit complicated ones.

Infinite Athlete was renamed as such following the recent merger of two other companies, Tempus Ex Machina and Biocore. One of Infinite’s biggest backers is investment firm Silver Lake, which also invests in a company called Fanatics, in which Chelsea’s co-owner Clearlake has invested hundreds of millions of dollars.

The stand at Liverpool’s Anfield Road could be postponed until 2024

Liverpool face the prospect of not fully completing their new £80 million Anfield Road stand until 2024.

Sources close to the construction have told Mail Sport that due to ongoing issues with constructor Buckingham Group, the club is facing a situation where the completion date will be pushed back from October to the new year.

Buckingham filed a notice of intent to appoint administrators last week and workers were removed from the site, sparking fears of further delays.

A full opening has already been pushed back from summer to October.

It is clear that the nightmare scenario for the club is for the delays to extend into the holiday season.

Insiders believe the club will move to ensure the stadium can run at full capacity, even if construction of additional areas such as shops and the fan zone is not completed.

Even private best-case scenarios don’t see a full 61,000 capacity match taking place before early November.

The club is also facing a £5 million financial shortfall from lost matchday revenue – although club officials have tried to ensure that all season ticket holders in the unfinished stand can attend matches in other parts of the pitch.

Capacity at Anfield is limited to 51,000 until the top tier of the stand is completed.

The capacity is 3,000 less than last season.

Buckingham will be forced to cover some of the costs associated with the delay under the terms of the construction contract, while the club has only paid for the works completed, meaning millions of the budget could be diverted to an alternative construction company.

Chelsea star Sterling drops controversial agent

Raheem Sterling has dropped his controversial agent Aidy Ward as CEO of one of his firms – replacing him with Ward’s wife Limara.

Sterling has assets of £1,135,000 in RS Corp Holdings, a company he founded three years ago.

However, the Chelsea striker has fired his longtime agent just months after Ward and his company Colossal Sports Management were banned from football for 20 months by the Football Association for approaching an underage player.