They score, you save

It might not put you in the same league as Rupert Murdoch, Martin Edwards or Sir John Hall, but soccer fans could soon be making a respectable financial return on the emotional investment they make in their favourite team.

Midland Bank is considering launching a bank account linked to the performance of the football team you follow, with the interest rate increasing every time your team wins or draws.

The account is already available in Mauritius where it has proved successful with thousands of people after being set up in 1996 by the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank. The account, known as Football Plus, was launched on the Indian Ocean island to encourage people to save while cashing in on the local passion for the Premiership.

For a minimum of £240, savers can open an account where the interest rate is linked to the performance of either Liverpool or Manchester United, the two most popular teams on the island.

Each time either of the teams win, 0.03 per cent is added to the interest rate and if they draw, 0.01 per cent is added. The attraction of the account is that if the teams lose the interest rate does not decrease. All savers start off from a base rate of eight per cent in Mauritius, and regardless of how Liverpool or Manchester United fare over the course of a season, the interest rate will not drop below this figure.

The football accounts have attracted big savers as well as smaller ones. Interest rates for those investing in the account linked to Manchester United finished at 9.003 per cent at the end of last season. One Man United fan invested £20,000 last year. In a normal account, with an interest base rate of eight per cent, he would have earned £1,600. But with football plus, the saver earned £1,800 in interest, earning himself an extra £200 thanks to United's relatively successful season.

Catherine Jewitt, head of Personal Banking for the Midland Bank in the English midlands, says: "It encourages young people with an interest in football to save."

Or gamble as the case may be.