Mourinho: 'Unlike PSG, Chelsea players don't need bonuses to win matches'

Mourinho insists money cannot be the incentive to win

Chelsea boss José Mourinho has revealed Chelsea’s players will not receive a bonus if they progress into the quarter-finals of the Champions League and will only be eligible for add-ons if they with the tournament in June. However, the financial incentives are much higher for players of Paris Saint-Germain – who stand in Chelsea’s way of progressing to the quarter-finals. Each PSG player stand to earn £180,000 if they progress into the last eight.

The Premier League leaders host PSG at Stamford Bridge with the tie poised on a knife’s edge after the 1-1 at Paris.

PSG’s Qatari owners implemented a sliding scale of bonuses which would see each of their players to be paid £740,000 if they manage to win the club’s first European Cup.On the other hand, Chelsea restructured their bonus policy before Mourinho’s return in 2013 but the manager questioned its effectiveness after being hired.

He said, “You know, for a long time, I don’t have bonuses. I just have bonuses to win competitions. So I forgot that feeling. The last time was at Porto. Win bonuses for matches or win bonuses to get through some rounds ... I never had a bonus [like that] again and I don’t think we should. The club pay us a very good salary to do our job the best we can.

“If we take the club into quarter-finals, semi-finals, finals but we don’t win the competition, we are doing a very good job for the club financially but I don’t think we should get extra money if we don’t win the last prize. Every player at the high level has enough money in salaries and I think everyone plays to win.”

When asked if players deserve bonuses for progressing through the knockout stages, Mourinho said, “No. If somebody puts on the table €250,000 to win a certain match it’s nice but I think professionalism goes beyond that. Don’t take this the wrong way but, for me, what’s more important is the happiness and pride of success, more than the money.

“Football is about our passion for the game, the happiness and the pride of victories. They have no price.”

Mourinho still hails EPL as ‘best league in the world’ despite recent European failures

Chelsea are better placed to progress in the competition than Manchester City and Arsenal -the two other English clubs still in the competition. City and Arsenal lost their home ties to Barcelona and Monaco respectively, making their task considerably tougher.

The situation draws attention to the decline of Premier League sides in European competition compared to 2008 and 2009, when English teams used to constitute fifty percent of the quarter-finalists. Only Chelsea in 2012 and 2014, and Manchester United last year have progressed to the last eight of the competition in the last three editions.

Mourinho said, “We have a big job to do. To imagine English football, the best league in the world, without one single team in the Champions League quarter-finals is hard. But even if that happens we would still have the best league in the world. These are different competitions.

“Look at Bayern Munich, who can play almost a second team [in the Bundesliga] without any kind of pressure. Even PSG … I saw their game on Saturday [won 4-1 against Lens] and our training session that day was harder than their match.

“My players on Sunday, they were resting from the hard training session on the Saturday. I think on Sunday PSG’s players were not resting from their game against Lens. So it’s more difficult for English clubs.

“I am not here to protect anybody but do you think it’s normal where Everton is in the Premier League? It’s not normal. This League is very difficult and the Champions League is a completely different situation.”