$7 Million for World Cup Boss : Soccer: Rothenberg awarded big bonus when the event makes a $60-million profit.
Alan Rothenberg will receive $7 million in compensation for serving as the World Cup Organizing Committee’s chairman and chief executive officer, the Times learned Tuesday.
The World Cup Board of Directors released the event’s preliminary financial accounting, and projected the monthlong soccer tournament’s net at $60 million, about three times earlier estimates.
The board announced that Rothenberg would receive a $3-million bonus. However, two board members said the board also voted Rothenberg an additional $4 million as part of a deferred-compensation package for “back pay due,” calculated at $800,000 a year, running from August of 1990 through next year.
In addition, Rothenberg’s extensive expenses the last four years had previously been reimbursed by the committee.
Rothenberg could not be reached for comment.
In 1992, Rothenberg declined a salary of $350,000 a year that was offered by the board, saying he would accept compensation only if a surplus was produced. Rothenberg said many times later that he was not receiving a salary.
Board member Peter V. Ueberroth, who chaired the Compensation Committee, said Tuesday that an outside consulting group had given a range of figures for the executive bonuses and that the board had made the final determinations.
The board also voted Scott LeTellier, WCOC chief operating officer, a $500,000 bonus; Executive Vice President Marla Messing a $350,000 bonus, and Chief Administrative Officer Eli Primrose-Smith a $250,000 bonus, a board member said.
In an era of declining sports marketing dollars and increasing costs of mounting international sporting events, the surplus is considered by some to be remarkable. Early projections called for a $20-million profit.
“I think the figures are exceptional,” said Ueberroth, who organized the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles that netted $225 million. “In this country, we like to kick ourselves around. We are often embarrassed by our success in America. It’s a good omen for Atlanta (site of the 1996 Olympic Games).”
The board announced that it expected to turn over $40 million to the U.S. Soccer Federation Foundation, a nonprofit organization established to promote and support soccer in the United States.
The issue of bonuses had been controversial among soccer insiders.
Before the World Cup, even officials within the U.S. Soccer Federation, of which Rothenberg is the president, called for a closer accounting of what they characterized as the big spending habits of World Cup officials.
The board, which met last Wednesday, wasn’t in complete agreement on the issue of Rothenberg’s compensation. There was a nay vote and two abstentions on the question of awarding Rothenberg $4 million in back pay.
“I’m against paying a guy for a volunteer job,” said one board member, asking not to be identified.
Other bonuses voted by the board: deferred salary continuation for 418 full-time employees, which amounted to $7.7 million, and a bonus pool of $1 million to be shared by about 60 employees.
