MANCHESTER UNITED reserves used to receive a £10,000 match bonus… until Sir Alex Ferguson put a lid on the pay structure.
That’s according to ex-United stopper Ben Foster.
Manchester United reserves used to receive £10,000 per gameRichard Pelham / The Sun
Ben Foster played 23 times for Manchester UnitedNews Group Newspapers Ltd
The 35-year-old announced his retirement from football in September and now spends his time talking about the game.
Most of the time he’s doing it on his podcast “Fozcast – The Ben Foster Podcast”, which is available to watch on YouTube.
He often speaks about his career and occasionally goes back to his early days at Old Trafford.
During a recent episode, where was joined by Soccer AM star Tubes, he was discussing bonuses and match fees.
And remarkably, Foster revealed how reserve players earning as little as £250-per-week would be paid 40 times that for simply coming onto the pitch.
Although players would only get half that amount if they were on the pitch for just 20 minutes.
Speaking on the Fozcast, he said: “It’s basically an incentive to say ‘if you can get on the pitch or start a game, we will look after you, we will pay you a big bonus’.
“So they’re happy to say, if you’re doing well and making it into the pitch, you’re earning your money, we will pay you the bonus payments.
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“That clause is probably a standard fee for a younger player, £10,000 would be a standard fee, it doesn’t matter if you were on £250-a-week or £6,000-per-week like me, if you made it onto the pitch, you would get £10,000-per-week.
“If you come on as a sub, you get half of that.
Every player would also receive an additional £500 for every point won in the Premier League.
And Foster jokiningly said: “We were winning every single time back then.”
But the former goalkeeper revealed that once he exited the club they eventually changed the win bonus, meaning players would only be paid extra for winning silverware.
Foster added: “That was 15 years ago, bonus payments, win bonuses have gone up like you wouldn’t believe, I’m talking an awful increase.
“But what Manchester United did when I left in 2010, they completely changed the bonus structure.
“They were in the era of dominance, complete dominance, when they were always in the Champions League final, always winning the Premier League and always winning the League Cup and FA Cup.
“So they changed it and said you will only get a bonus if you win the Premier League or Champions League and the same thing with the FA Cup and League Cup.
“The appearance fee will always be there, but the win bonus for success, you will only get it if you win, you have to win the Premier League.
“So they could play a 38-game season, not win anything and they’re not getting any win bonus.”