Sven-Goran Eriksson says he has a clear conscience over his salary
to coach the Ivory Coast at the World Cup.
The former England manager is reputed to be on a six-figure
sum - with extra bonuses - but he says he is "not even close" to
the money Fabio Capello earns.
Eriksson told talkSPORT: "I don't think I am paid that well,
but I'm happy.
"I don't think I'm even close to what the England manager
has.
But that's OK for me; I have no problems with that. What is
most important is to do a good World Cup.
"It's a World Cup and a good team, a lot of good football
players and I'm really looking forward to it."
The former England and Manchester City manager's agent Athole
Still told the radio station there had been no haggling over his
pay.
He said: "The deal that I did for Sven with the Ivory Coast
was done extremely amicably. There was no hard bargaining. The
money that he is being paid is money that was offered by the Ivory
Coast. I did not get it enhanced in anyway at all.
"If I had wanted I could have negotiated much more for Sven.
We didn't do so."
Still said that Eriksson had lost money at Notts County and
insisted that former City owner Thaksin Shinawatra had made "a
massive mistake" in sacking the Swede.
"If Sven was still at Manchester City I believe that
Manchester City would be doing even better than they are doing
now," said Still.
"As far as I'm concerned Manchester City made a massive
mistake in sacking him. It wasn't Manchester City, it was a person
called Dr Shinawatra.
"I hope very much he is back in the Premier League and if he
comes back he will do an extremely good job like he did at
Manchester City until he was outrageously sacked."
(reopens) Meanwhile Manchester City's Ivory Coast defender
Kolo Toure has welcomed Eriksson's appointment.
Toure told mcfc.co.uk: "I'm very excited about it. I've
spoken to a few people at the club who remember him from his time
here and I've heard lots of good things about him.
"It's a big challenge for him. The team needs a bit of
confidence, but we have some very good players and we just need to
get a bit of belief back.
"We needed somebody with experience with the World Cup coming
up, and now we really have one, someone who has done so much in
football down the years.
"He is one of the world's top managers, and with us not
having much time to the World Cup we need to work with him when we
can quickly and intelligently."
