Pay-off: Benitez would be owed £16m by Liverpool if
they sack him in the summer
Rafa Benitez will have £16million paid immediately into
his bank account if Liverpool sack him this summer.
The under-fire Anfield manager has a clause in the five-year
contract he signed in March 2009 which dictates that his
£4m-a-season deal is paid up in full within 24 hours of him being
dismissed.
Benitez and his representatives negotiated the terms
when he was in a position of strength at the club, having won the
battle for power with former chief executive Rick Parry and gained
control of all transfer business.
It helped that the team were also performing well en route to
finishing runners-up to Manchester United in the league last
season.
Now, however, the clause is one of the reasons Benitez remains
in his job after what has been a disastrous seven months for
Liverpool.
Their poor league form and early elimination from the Champions
League have led to doubts about the Anfield futures of Fernando
Torres and Steven Gerrard and put Benitez under enormous
pressure.
But Anfield's American owners have not stuck by Benitez out of
loyalty and the belief that he can turn things around at the club
but because of the expense of getting rid of him.
In doubt: Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard could
move on in the summer
