Despite being offered a reported £2m deal to manage the Ivory Coast at the World Cup, Sven-Goran Eriksson has said that he doesn't believe he is being paid "that well", reports The Guardian. Eriksson was announced as the country's new manager on Sunday and will coach the nation, where the average daily wage is £3, at the World Cup.

"I don't think I am paid that well," he told TalkSport. "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."

He added: "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 Manchester City and Mexico manager's agent, Athole Still, also defended Eriksson's salary, saying that Ivory Coast football fans would be glad to pay for a manager of such standing.

He said: "The first point I would say is this, why don't you ask some of these 'poor people in the Ivory Coast' about whether they would like to have a top class, international manager like Sven or someone that they've never heard of who comes from one of the local villages there - who could be a perfectly decent coach - or would they prefer to have somebody who we would hope would give them a much better team and a much better chance of really performing at the World Cup?

"I can tell you that 99.99% of them would say 'Oh, let's have Sven-Goran Eriksson. We've heard all about him, he's a big name, he's had a lot of success with major clubs and at international level with England.' They will be delighted, they will be jumping up and down if the Ivory Coast does well. That's my first point.

"The second point that I would make is this - sport is not a forum where you go into the economics of all the African states. It's not the concept that you should be talking about.

"Thirdly, 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."

Asked if it was right that a country with the financial difficulties of the Ivory Coast should be spending so much on a football manager, Still said: "Of course they have. Are you going to say the same thing if we go into another context, shall we say a surgeon? If they have the money to employ a top-class world surgeon to go in and do some work for them, are you going to say that they shouldn't pay that surgeon the money?"

For more World Cup news, go to www.worldcup.tribalfootball.com