Food for thought

BBC Sport Online's Mike Burnett looks at unusual incentives on offer to footballers after Bolton Wanderers reveals the secret of their successful season start.

They say that the best way to a man's heart is through his stomach and this certainly seems to be true in the world of football.

Newly-promoted Bolton's bright start to the Premiership may be due to more than just hard work.

Their chairman Phil Gartside has admitted there is a strange bonus scheme in place at the Reebok Stadium this season.

"If we win by more than three goals, it means that I have to go out and eat lamb's testicles and sheep's eyeballs," said Gartside.

"And if we lose by more than three goals, then the players have to do it, which is a good incentive not to."

This system seems to be paying off for Bolton, who opened their Premiership account with a 5-0 thrashing of Leicester.

A new addition to Leeds' car park

But they are not the first team to try and gee up the players with something slightly out of the ordinary.

Cardiff City defender Spencer Prior is no stranger to sheep's balls, having had to dig his teeth into a plate of them on joining the Bluebirds.

The crazy terms were written in his contract by Cardiff supremo Sam Hamman, and also included kissing striker Dean Holdworth's bottom.

But Leeds United have decided to go easy on their stomachs, relying instead on the 'name and shame' technique.

In the Elland Road car park, alongside the long line of flashy sports cars belonging to players, there now resides a 'Del-boy and Rodney'-style Robin Reliant.

The footballer who performs worst in training is given the title "Plonker of the week" and has to drive the less than stylish three-wheeler to the next game.

Jonathan Woodgate could not have been warming up too well for the new season as he was first to give it a drive.

It is a far cry from the incentives offered by some teams such as Saudi Arabia, which choose to award cars for success rather than failure.

A Saudi player demands his car keys back of a Dutch player

Saudi players received $100,000 and a Mercedes Benz from their oil-rich government in 1994 when they qualified for the World Cup.

In fact, most sides rely on good old-fashioned financial incentives to boost their players' performances.

These can be especially lucrative if it is a politically-charged game.

In 1998, Iranian players were given a $7,000 bonus for beating their old idealogical enemies, the United States, 2-1, in a World Cup game.

It may not seem much but, in a country where a good monthly salary is about $200 and most of the players have day jobs, it is a small fortune.

Of course, some clubs choose to give bonuses to other team's players instead of their own.

According to former treasurer Juan Onieva, Spanish giants Real Madrid have paid money to other teams to win matches against key rivals.

But the award for the most seductive offer goes to die-hard South African football fan David Lamola.

In July, he offered his two daughters to Nigerian Raphael Chukwu Ndukwe in a desperate move to stop Sundown's top striker from leaving for Europe.

Who said the art of romance is dead?