Trap can scoop Euro millions for FAI

THE FAI will receive a staggering minimum €8m should Giovanni Trapattoni’s Republic of Ireland side qualify for next year’s Euro 2012 finals in Poland and the Ukraine.

Details were announced yesterday by UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino after a two-day meeting of Europe’s soccer governing body in Nyon, Switzerland. The total prize money on offer will be an astonishing €196 million.

Each of the 16 finalists will receive a minimum €8m with a performance bonus at the group stages of €500,000 for a draw, €1m for a win as well as €1m for the team placed third in each of the four-team groups.

The quarter-finalists will each receive €2m, the semi-finalists €3m, the runners-up €4.5m and the eventual winners €7.5m.

Suddenly those group qualifying games at home to Slovakia (Sept 2) and away to Russia in Moscow (Sept 6) take on even greater significance. To reach the finals would greatly ease the financial worries of the FAI.