You can’t buy a Gareth Bale, but you can do your best to help the next generation flourish.
Wales face Portugal in the first Euro 2016 semi-final in Lyon on Wednesday night but, win, lose or draw, these championships have already been a financial boon for football in the principality.
Chris Coleman’s side have already earned €18 million for the Football Association of Wales and, should Bale get the better of his Real Madrid team-mate Cristiano Ronaldo, you can add on a guaranteed €5m more.
In a country where football is competing with the popularity of rugby union, the ability to fund capital projects and coaching schemes will be vital to unearthing a few more Bales and Aaron Ramseys.
To put the windfall in perspective, the winner of the Six Nations land about €4m.
To put it in another perspective, Bale’s Real Madrid wages are thought to be in the region of €18m per annum.
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Iceland, a country where football is undoubtedly king, is also counting the financial rewards of its heartening run to the quarter-finals.
The tiny island nation of little over 300,000 people earned over €636 for each of their 22,000 registered footballers (€14m).
Not that they intend on taking such a Communist approach to wealth distribution, according to joint manager Lars Lagerback.
“The clubs and the football association can use the income from this tournament to put into important football projects, like developing young players,” he said.
The FAI has yet to outline plans for their €11m prize-money, but they can take some encouragement from the fact they earned a cool €500,000 more than Northern Ireland thanks to an additional point in the group stages.
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