With highest bonus promised, women's footballers can afford sunscreen now

The Chinese women's soccer team don't have to worry about high prices of sunscreen now.

China will award the players the "highest ever" bonus after the "Steel Roses" reached the World Cup quarter-finals.

One million yuan (160,000 US dollars) will be paid to the players who made it to the quarter-finals by beating Cameroon 1-0 on Sunday, Yu Hongchen, vice president of the Chinese Football Association (CFA), told Xinhua.

"The World Cup bonus will be the highest ever in women's national team history," Yu said.

Part of the bonus will be spent on cosmetic products including sunscreen, according to China head coach Hao Wei.

Hao complained after China's opening 1-0 loss to Canada that it had already been a heavy burden for the lowly-paid players to buy sunburn cream.

"They are players, but they are girls, too, who want to be beautiful and have fine skin," said Hao Wei last week. "They each use one 150ml tube of sunscreen."

Top China-made sunscreen fetches 660 yuan while foreign brands are even more expensive.

One million yuan bonus, still far less than incentives offered to the perennially under-performing men's team, is aimed to raise popularity of the game among women, where most of the national team players earn about 3,000 yuan a month, below the national average of 4,100 yuan.

China have reached the last eight for the sixth time with the best result being runners-up in 1999, but it will be the first quarter-final appearance in eight years after failing to qualify for the 2011 World Cup finals.

China will take on either the United States or Colombia for a berth in the semifinals.

CFA vice president Yu said the Chinese team will be better off if they go farther in the World Cup.

"I believe more sponsorships will go to the women's team if they have a even better result," said Yu. Endi