Soccer: Bonus late but on its way

A $3000 bonus for making the A-League playoffs which was to be paid to each of the Phoenix players on May 1 will now instead be paid on June 1. Photo / Getty Images

some wellington phoenix players are still owed bonuses from last season - but they are due to be paid on tuesday.

there has been speculation the a-league outfit are in trouble because of publicity surrounding some late payments from owner terry serepisos' business empire.

he owed the wellington city council $2 million in rates and ground lease rentals but said recently he had paid most of it.

the rumour mill went into overdrive last week after new zealand football chairman frank van hattum met wellington city council representatives, with some people suggesting they were piecing together a "back-up plan" within 24 hours should the phoenix fold. in fact, the only reason they met was to discuss how they could build on the club's success last season.

the phoenix will enjoy some relief on tuesday, when new sponsorship deals kick in.

this will allow the club to pay bonuses owed to the players for making last season's playoffs. players were promised about $3000 each for making the top six. this payment was originally due on may 1.

management also had their salaries delayed by a couple of days but wellington chief executive tony pignata said no payments had been missed.

"everyone is up to date [in terms of salary payments]," pignata said.

"the only thing that is outstanding, and we agreed this with the players about a month ago, is bonuses for them making the finals. these will be paid on june 1. all the players not contracted and who have left have been paid [their bonuses].

"there have been no missed payments. a couple of [ones to] management have been delayed by a couple of days. i said i was happy to wait a couple of days, as long as the players were paid. we pay every two weeks so sometimes that doesn't coincide with the monies coming in."

a significant amount will come in on tuesday.

as well as sponsorship payments, memberships and season tickets go on sale.

the phoenix are also in line for a $450,000 windfall from fifa next month for players involved in the world cup.

for the first time, fifa will compensate clubs to the tune of us$1600 a day for each player they have at the world cup.

on top of that is significant revenue from hosting argentine club boca juniors in july.

"there's a lot of innuendo and a lot of issues with people throwing dirt," pignata said.

"it's business as usual as far as we are concerned. we wouldn't be signing players or organising games against boca juniors if we were in trouble. this season, we expect to break even or go very close. if we don't, terry will pick up the tab. as owner, he knows he's basically another sponsor."

parallels have been drawn between the phoenix's plight and that of the kingz and knights. while there are similarities there are also differences.

wellington have been successful on the field, have significant sponsors such as sony and a healthy fanbase.

new zealand football have in the past advanced money to the phoenix to help pay the bills. football federation australia pay a quarterly subsidy to each club and nzf, who hold the a-league licence and sublease it to the phoenix, have often paid this to wellington in advance.

"we are prepared to help them out where we can and will continue to do that," nzf chief executive michael glading said. "we have advanced monies in the past.

"we are quite comfortable with the situation at the club. we have seen the figures and the reality is that this year they are in better shape than ever.

"none of us know the state of the rest of terry's businesses and that's the great unknown but at the moment we have seen nothing to alarm us."

nzf are likely to transfer the new five-year licence to the phoenix. they picked it up when the knights went bust in 2007 but would prefer serepisos to have it because of the financial risks they would face if wellington got into serious trouble.

the national body have good cash reserves following the all whites' qualification for the world cup but would not be prepared to fund the club. serepisos has invested about $5 million of his own money into the phoenix during the club's three seasons in the a-league.