Czech stars to donate World Cup cash to young talent

Czech soccer player Pavel Nedved, seen here during a friendly match on 26 May 2006. Czech footballers and the national football association have reportedly agreed to channel some of their World Cup earnings into a fund to develop young football talent in the country.

Czech footballers and the national football association have reportedly agreed to channel some of their World Cup earnings into a fund to develop young football talent in the country.

Around five percent of the national association's and players' earnings from participation in the opening group games of the World Cup in Germany will be channelled into the fund, the Czech News Agency, CTK, reported.

That should amount to around five million koruna (177,500 euros, 227,000 dollars), it added, citing the Czech and Moravian Football Association's (CMFS) steering committee deputy president, Vlastimil Kostal.

Kostal told the agency that a group of six players, including Pavel Nedved, Karel Poborsky, Petr Cech, Tomas Rosicky, Tomas Galasek and Tomas Ujfalusi, called for their own representative on the board of the new fund during a meeting on Friday.

They wanted the chance to "follow the flow of money and in the final event propose some possibilities for projects where the fund could be directed in the future," he said.

Although the Czech national squad is ranked by football's global governing body, FIFA, as the second best in the world, the domestic game has been hit by a series of corruption scandals and falling attendances.

The Czech Republic has been drawn in the same opening World Cup group as Italy, the United States and Ghana.