Big carrot dangled in front of Beijing soccer club for trophy victory

Local soccer club Beijing Guo'an now have 3.7 million reasons to claim the upcoming Barclays Asia Trophy championship, a friendly tournament that no Asian club have ever won.

The prize money for the local club in the four-team tournament, held this week in Beijing, has risen to 3.7 million yuan ($541,664).

Besides the 700,000 yuan ($102,477) prize money promised by the event's organizing committee, two soccer fans of the Beijing club have offered 2 million yuan ($292,791) to Beijing Guo'an to inspire the host team against the three Premier League clubs: West Ham, Hull City and Tottenham Hotspurs. Together with 1 million yuan ($146,396) they will be paid for attending the tournament, the Beijing club will pocket a total of 3.7 million yuan ($541,664) if they could win.