Al-Hilal offered bumper payday for Asian title triumph
Thursday, 30 October 2014 01:21
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Reuters: A Saudi prince has offered Al-Hilal players and team officials a bonus of $ 26,000 each if they can beat Australian club Western Sydney Wanderers and win the Asian Champions League this weekend.
The 13-times Saudi and twice Asian champions lost the first leg 1-0 in Sydney last weekend but will be in for a bumper payday if they can overturn the deficit at the King Fahd Stadium on Saturday.
Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, who is worth $ 21.5 billion according to Forbes, made the offer of 100,000 riyals (about $ 26,650) a man in a tweet just before last Saturday’s first leg kicked off.
The Saudi royal also said he would be paying for free entry for all fans of the club for Saturday’s second leg in Riyadh, where a crowd in excess of 65,000 is expected. Fourteen Wanderers fans have travelled from Australia for the match.
According to the prince’s website (www.alwaleed.com.sa), the Al-Hilal players received bonuses of 20,000 Riyals for reaching the ACL quarter-finals and another of 40,000 riyals for winning the first leg of their ACL semi-final against Al Ain 3-0.
He flew them to the Emirati city for the second leg in his private jet and gifts the already wealthy club 2.5 million riyals per season.
In 2007, Al-Hilal signed a sponsorship deal with Saudi Arabian mobile operator Mobily worth 200 million riyals ($ 53.31 million) over five years.
Wanderers, by contrast, must work within a salary cap of A $2.55 million ($ 2.26 million) this season under A-League rules.
